Harry Potter and his Auror Training
by StageManagerGod
Summary: This story follows Harry through his Auror training and budding relationship with Ginny. Come on a journey of self discovery, sex and adventure. Starts about 1 month after the final battle and ends when Ginny leaves for school. Read and review please.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I'm Baaaaaaack. Hey all, after a long hiatas from writing I'm back with a new story. See my profile for a more detailed description of what is to come. As always, the characters in this story are property of J.K. Rowling and whatever publishing company owns the rights to Harry Potter. I have tried to stay as close to Cannon as possible, if you notice anything that isn't cannon please point it out to me so I can fix it, if I can. _

_This story is about Harry and the three months of training he goes through to become an Auror. It also is about Harry and Ginny's budding relationship and sex life. I promise it will not be nearly as long as my first story, nor will it be updated as often. I've decided to update as I write the chapters so it may be a while between updates as I am busy with work and such. So please enjoy and then tell me what you think with a review._

_UPDATE: This chapter has been re-published with a few small changes. I realized as I was writing the 8__th__ chapter that I had completely skipped over Harry's birthday and was about to wiz past Ginny's as well. I've changed the start date of the story to two weeks after the final battle instead of one month. _

Harry Potter and his Auror Training

Chapter 1: It begins

Harry Potter was sitting in the living room of The Burrow. He had been staying there since after Hogwarts had closed down to be repaired.

It was only two weeks after the final battle. All of those who had died had been buried, Hogwarts was on its way to being repaired, and the wizarding government seemed to be getting back on its feet. Kingsley had taken over as Interim Minister of Magic, although there were talks of an emergency election to take place. Professor McGonagall had been named Head Mistress of Hogwarts only a few hours after the battle was over. Harry, Ron and Hermione had walked in on the announcement just after they had put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's casket.

The funeral for Fred had been a family gathering, so it had been huge. It had been almost as big as Fleur and Bill's wedding, and had taken almost as much preparation.

It had taken a lot of effort, but the grieving family quickly got the large house cleaned up and ready for the Funeral. Harry and Ron were again in Ron's old room, which still had a slight stink from the troll. Ginny and Hermione were rooming together. Bill and Fleur took Bill's old room; Charley took up his old room and took George in as a roommate. Percy was given his old room, no question's asked. By the weekend the funeral was ready, and it had been one hell of a funeral.

Fred and George had apparently had made up a will when they opened WWW. If either or both were to die they already had the funeral(s) planned out. In classic Forge and Gred fashion the twins had planned an extravaganza, complete with fireworks, fake wands and literal boxes of laughs.

However, when Fred was finally put into the ground there was no shortage of tears, from almost every eye tears fell.

In the weeks after the funeral life at the Burrow had slowly regained a semblance of normality, although it was much quieter and Mrs. Weasley still burst in to tears every few days. George had gone back to WWW a week after the funeral. Angelina Johnson had agreed to help him run the shop for a while. She had also agreed to keep an eye on him for the Weasley's.

Now, only a few weeks after the funerals of Fred and the many others who had died in the 2nd battle of Hogwarts. Harry was sitting on the couch in the living room of the Burrow, Ginny's head resting in his lap, her sleeping form spread out on the couch, Harry had conjured a blanket over her. For the first few days after the battle Harry and Ginny had been decidedly awkward around each other. But during the funeral Ginny had found Harry, a single tear on her cheek. With out a word Harry had opened his arms and she had buried her face in his shoulder, finally allowing herself to cry for her dead brother. Harry and Ginny did not pick up exactly where they had left off, but they made a good start.

Now, they were seen spending most of their time together. And anybody who had spent even a few hours with the couple would agree that both seemed to bask in each other's presence. It was obvious they were in love.

Ron and Hermione were also in the living room, on a smaller couch opposite Harry and Ginny. They too had become quite close over the last few weeks. Their kiss during the battle seemed to have opened them both up a bit. That being said, their relationship was not perfect. They still fought a bit, although the fighting was neither as intense nor as long lasting as it had been before they got together.

"Harry," Hermione said, snapping Harry back to the here and now.

"What, I'm sorry, what were you saying?" asked Harry, his eyes focusing on Hermione and Ron. Ron had his arm around Hermione, who was leaning into Ron, her head resting on his shoulder.

"I was saying that it's great that Hogwarts will be repaired in time for the up coming school year." Said Hermione, her tone not that of a scolding parent, but of a concerned friend. "I asked if you had thought about going back."

"Oh," said Harry, "I don't think I'm going to go back."

"Why not?" asked Hermione, a small look of shock on her face. "If you don't finish school you can't be an Auror."

"I'm not really sure if that's what I want to be," said Harry. "I mean I wanted to do it originally because I knew I had to be the one to finally confront and end Voldemort. But I've done that so…"

"Well I'm going back," said Hermione. "I want to be as well armed as possible to work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"Well I know I'm not going back," said Ron definitely. "I just feel too old for Hogwarts. And I _DON'T_ want to be an Auror. I was going to sign on to help Harry with the hunt, but that life is not for me, at least not right now."

The friends were silent for a while. Harry's gaze found the window again and he looked at the stars, which seemed to twinkle with a new light now. Harry knew that Hermione's tone of concern from a few moments ago was for him. All of the Weasleys, and quite a few other people who were close to Harry, were concerned about his state of mind. Most of the people were concerned that Harry was blaming himself for the death of everybody during the final battle. And the few who Harry had told about his 'death' in the forest were even concerned about his sanity.

Harry understood all of this, and kept telling them he was fine. Which for the first time in a very long time was completely true. He was completely sane and he didn't blame himself for the death of everyone. He understood that they had chosen to fight; he hadn't had to force any of them into it. Sure he felt bad that so many people had died, but that was it.

At first these feelings had surprised him, but the more the more he thought about it, the more he understood that when he 'died' in the forest some part of him had been removed, or maybe killed was a better word. He no longer felt the huge amount of self-doubt that had plagued him for his whole life. He supposed that those feelings had come from the part of Voldemort's soul that had been transferred to him when Voldemort had tried to kill him as a baby. He had also recently discovered that he could no longer speak parcel tongue, and quite frankly he was glad for that.

After a little while Ron yawned, "I'm going to sleep," he said, slowly removing his arm from around Hermione's shoulder, "I think I'm almost caught up on the sleep that I didn't get while we were on the hunt and from the last battle.

"Yeah, me too," said Hermione. "You coming Harry," she asked as she got to the bottom of the stairs.

"No," said Harry softly, not taking his eyes away from the stars, "I'm going to stay down here a bit longer." He petted Ginny's soft red hair affectionately, "I don't want to disturb Gin' if I don't have to."

"Alright," said Hermione, still sounding a bit concerned.

"I'm fine Hermione," said Harry, "I promise. If I ever need anybody to talk to you'll be one of the first I come to."

"One of the first?" Hermione asked with a slight smile.

"Well Ginny made our getting back together conditional on her being the first person I'd go to if I needed to talk something out so…"

"I understand," said Hermione smiling. She looked up the stairs, following Ron's footsteps, "I understand just perfectly." And with that she went up to Ginny's room.

Harry stared out the window for a while. For the first week or so after the funerals Harry's sleep had constantly interrupted by images of the final battle, of the hundreds of dead bodies and of his parents.

Then, finally he had talked to Ginny about the dreams. He talked to her about the fear he felt for Teddy Lupin, who was being taken care of by his Grandmother. He told her about the fact that he seemed to be haunted by images their friends who had died in the final battle.

Ginny had smiled sadly and said that everybody in the house was having the same problems. She assured him that it was normal to have the dreams. They had talked for hours about both of their fears, their wants and their plans.

Ginny was planning on going back to Hogwarts and doing her seventh year. Then she wanted to play Quidditch professionally.

Harry didn't know what he wanted to do. He may go back to Hogwarts, or he may not. All he knew was that school wouldn't be the same.

After Harry and Ginny had talked Harry's dreams started to get a lot less frequent. In the last week he had only been woken up once by a nightmare.

Harry's scar hadn't done so much as itch since he had killed Voldemort. Harry hadn't realized just how much pain he had been in recently. He had learned to ignore it and to keep it from affecting him. Now that the pain was gone he felt like a vice-clamp had been removed from his head.

As Harry was thinking about all this he drifted off into a peaceful sleep that lasted until morning.

Harry woke up the next morning as sunlight streamed into the living room of the Burrow. He could smell bacon, eggs and French toast cooking. He realized Mrs. Weasley must already be up.

Suddenly Harry realized that he had fallen asleep in the living room of the Burrow, and that Ginny was still asleep on the couch, her head still resting on his lap, and her body still covered by a blanket. Harry could very easily imagine how it might look to somebody who just walked in.

It seemed that the universe was reading his mind as Mrs. Weasley walked in at that exact moment. She must have seen the worried look on Harry's face for she immediately put on a reassuring smile. "It's fine dear," she whispered, "I know you two didn't do anything." She looked at Ginny, and her smile became that of a loving mother. "You two belong together, you know that. Anyway, Breakfast will be ready soon if you want to come and eat." With that she walked out to continue cooking.

Apparently her whispers hadn't been quiet enough not to disturb Ginny, because it was at that moment that Ginny yawned and turned over. This of course presented a problem because she was on a narrow couch. Harry quickly reach out and grabbed his girlfriend's shoulder and hip, preventing her from tumbling off the couch and onto the floor.

The sudden stop of motion jerked Ginny awake and after Harry turned her back towards him she smiled up at him. "Good morning," she said, her soft smile sending a wave of warmth through Harry.

Then her eyes went wide as she realized where she was, and why she was lying on Harry's lap. She jerked upright, sending a small bit of her beautiful red hair into Harry's face. He caught a whiff of the strawberry smell that he had smelled nearly two years ago in Potions class.

"Oh god," she said, the panic obvious in her voice, "Did mum see us? What did she say? Why aren't you a toad? Why aren't I locked away in my room for the rest of my life? Why…well just why?" The questions poured out of her at an alarmingly fast pace and it was all Harry could do to keep himself from bursting out laughing. It didn't help though; Ginny noticed the smile on his face. "What?" she asked, the look she was giving him rivaled the look that Fred and George had gotten from Mrs. Weasley whenever their pranks had 'gone too far.'

"Nothing," said Harry, his smile becoming softer as he realized that he still found Ginny beautiful while she was giving him a death stare. "It was just kind of funny how you panicked so quickly. And how you thought I'd be a toad."

"Well that's what mum threatened to turn any boy who took advantage of me into," said Ginny as she looked around. "And judging by the smell coming from the kitchen I would have thought mum had already seen us. But maybe we got lucky and she hasn't come in here yet."

"Gin, calm down," Harry said as Ginny took a breath, "Yo…"

"Not now Harry," Ginny quickly cut him off, "If mum hasn't seen you yet than you can still apparate up to Ron's room and pretend to have been there all night."

"But Gin…" Harry started to say.

"GO," Ginny interrupted, a little louder than she intended.

A few moments later Mrs. Weasley came into the room. "Ah, good you're both awake now. Breakfast is ready, although it may be a little bit before anybody else comes down." She turned around and went back to the kitchen, leaving a chuckling Harry and astonished Ginny behind her.

After a few seconds Ginny finally asked, "Why didn't she turn you into a toad?"

"Well I suppose it's because she knows that I wouldn't 'take advantage of you'. And because she saw us already." Said Harry, "although if you want me to be a toad…" Harry let his sentence trail off, knowing perfectly well that his sarcasm may earn him some form of punishment from his girlfriend.

"Why didn't you tell me she had already seen us?" asked Ginny sternly. "You let me get all panicked. She may not have turned you into a toad, but I just may"

"I tried to tell you," said Harry, reaching around Ginny's waist from both sides and grabbing her wrists before she could grab her wand. "But you just kept interrupting." He used his hold on her to pull her closer to him. He kissed her shoulder once and felt her immediately soften in his arms.

"Fine, blame it on me," said Ginny, just as sarcastic as Harry had been, "but I'll find a way to get you back."

"I'm sure you will," said Harry with a smile as he released his grip on her arms. "But first, lets get breakfast. I'm starved.

Ginny just nodded, got up and headed towards the kitchen, closely followed by Harry. "What's the count today mum?" asked Ginny as she sat down for breakfast.

"Only about 200," said Mrs. Weasley, pointing to a small mountain of letters piled next to Harry's chair.

The day after the battle had ended; an article in the Daily Prophet told the story of the battle and Harry, Ron, and Hermione's part in the defeat of Voldemort. In fact it mentioned everyone who had fought, and everyone who had died. That afternoon everybody in the Weasley family, as well as many of the other people who had fought, started getting letters of thanks, praise, and in some cases marriage proposal. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and a few of the other D.A. members also started receiving gifts. Mixed in with all the gifts and letters of praise were threats and dangerous items. Hermione had quickly found a spell to sort out all the dangerous items and letters, although a few threats still got through.

At first there had been thousands of letters for Harry, Ron and Hermione each and a few hundred split between the rest of the Weasleys. After the first week the Weasleys all stopped receiving letters and gifts. After two weeks Ron and Hermione's letters trickled off to only a few a day, and Harry's pile shrunk to about 500 a day.

Now, a two weeks after the battle the pile was shrinking daily, with 200 being the lowest number yet.

In the past two weeks Harry had received more gifts than on all his birthdays and Christmases combined. Ron, Hermione and Ginny too had gotten quite a few gifts. All of them had received Firebolts from the company that made the broom, along with requests for an endorsement letter from each of them, among other things. They had all received letters from Rita Skeeter asking if she could write their biographies, all of them had turned her down.

At the bottom of today's pile, which was mostly the same autograph requests and press questions, Harry found a copy of the day's Daily Prophet. The headline on the front read _SHACKLEBOLT NEW MINISTER OF MAGIC._

Harry couldn't help but whoop in joy

"What is it?" Mrs. Weasley and Ginny both asked simultaneously

"Kingsley won!" Harry whispered exuberantly. He made sure to stay quiet, a bit embarrassed about his sudden outburst of a few seconds ago.

Ginny also let out a whoop, and Mrs. Weasley laughed excitedly.

It only took about 2 minutes for the rest of the house to come rushing down the stairs to see what all the commotion was about.

Ron fell down the last few steps as he was pulling his shirt on and wand out at the same time. "Wha is it" he managed after he got up, his wand and gaze sweeping the room.

"Oh put that away Ron," said Mrs. Weasley, "we just got a little excited because Kingsley won the election for Minister Of Magic."

There was a sudden uproar in the kitchen, causing the whole house to vibrate.

"Well it looks like you all have already heard the good news. I really wish the Daily Prophet would stop sending Harry copies a few hours before they get sent out to the rest of us." Said a deep, strong voice from the door to the back yard.

Another shout went up from the large family as everybody turned to see Kingsley Shacklebolt at the door to the kitchen.

"Mr. Minister," Percy said with a slight bow once the noise had gone down again.

"No, I refuse to be called that by this family," said Kingsley, "too many of you have saved my life too many times. I will always be Kingsley to this family."

"Fine with us Kingsley," said George as he pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at Kingsley.

The thing exploded when it reached the middle of the room, releasing one of WWW's new miniature fireworks displays.

"George how many times do I have to tell you NOT to use those in the HOUSE?" shouted Mrs. Weasley

When the fireworks, and Mrs. Weasley's yelling, had died out Kingsley just smiled and said, "Well I guess that's as good a segway as any." And with that he motioned for every one to be seated, and once they all were conjured a chair for himself.

"I came here this morning not only to tell you the good news, but to ask a few of you favors." Said Kingsley, looking around the table at the eleven people listening to him intently.

"Anything sir…I mean Kingsley," said Mr. Weasley

"Well the first thing was the not calling me Mr. Minister or Sir," Kingsley said with a chuckle. "The second Arthur was to ask you to become head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. George, I was hopping to increase the cooperation between WWW and the Ministry to keep providing defense against the dark arts tools as well as other…objects of interest. Those pocket fireworks could be a great distraction. They could act like what the muggle's call flash bang grenades." When Kingsley only received blank stairs from everybody except Hermione he went on. "Never mind, suffice to say they could be very useful to the Auroras and the Magical Law Enforcement squad."

Mr. Weasley was speechless, although he finally managed to sputter out something that sounded like "Yes, I'd be glad to"

"I'd be Happy to," George said, a gleam in his eye that hadn't been seen since Fred died. "On one condition," George added

"Name it," said Kingsley.

"I want Ron to join me as a partner." George looked to his little brother.

Now it was Ron's turn to be speechless. He managed to sputter out something that sounded like, "Why?"

"RON," Hermione shrieked at him as she slapped him on the arm, "what do you mean 'WHY?'"

"I mean why do you want me?" Ron asked his brother, looking completely dumbfounded. "I'm not that great with magic, money or business. If that's what you're looking for talk to Percy or Bill, but not me."

"But that's not what I'm looking for," said George calmly, "and you can learn a lot of that once we start working together. I'm looking for a weapons and tactical consultant who knows the business of fighting dark wizards and knows what the people doing it will need. Not only that Ron, but I see a lot of potential in you and I think you would be great at not only coming up with new defense products but at other things also."

"What does it pay?" Asked Ron after a few moments of silent consideration

"A 50-50 split of all profits," said George without blinking an eye.

"Deal," said Ron quickly. A gleam in his eye as well.

"Great," said Kingsley, patting Ron's arm appreciatively. "Now I have one more request, and it's for you Harry." Kingsley shifted in his seat and look directly at Harry, seemingly closing the two of them off from the rest of the world. "Harry I want you to join the Auror department. And help the Ministry clean up the rest of the Death Eaters. There seems to be a power vacuum now that Voldemort is dead. For the last few weeks we've been seeing the different factions that were under Voldemort's control fighting not only other factions but each other also. We need your help to clean it up."

"But wouldn't I have to go through almost 4 years of training before I became an Auror?" asked Harry

"Nope," said Kingsley simply, "We lost more than half of our Aurors in the final battle, we're taking people and putting them through an accelerated training course. Anybody who showed they could fight during the battle will be getting an offer from the Auror department in the next few weeks, but I _need _you Harry. You and the others who fought in the battles of Hogwarts have experience that none of the other Aurors have. And from what I've heard about the D.A. it alone covered about half of what was in Auror Training." Kingsley took a deep breath, preparing himself for something that he had obviously rehearsed. "Harry you are a very powerful wizard with respect and acclaim on the international scale. There are many Dark Wizards who would just give up if they knew that _THE _Harry Potter was coming after them. Harry the wizarding world needsyou, the Ministry needs you, Harry…_ I _need you."

Harry looked at Kingsley and burst out laughing, leaving not only Kingsley but everybody else in the room looking dumbfounded. "How many times have you rehearsed that little speech in front of a mirror?" asked Harry after he had calmed down a bit.

"About 30," Kingsley admitted with a slight smile.

"Well it worked," said Harry as he stood up and reached out to shake Kingsley's hand. "But I have one condition also. I want you to train me, from what I've seen and heard you're the best, and I want to learn from the best."

"Deal," said Kingsley. And with that he turned to leave

"Um…excuse me Mr. Min…I mean Sir…I mean Kingsley. I'm your senior aid Sir, do you have anything you need me to do in the next few days?" asked Percy awkwardly.

"Percy…you're a very smart young man," started Kingsley, "and I'm sure you were a great aid to my predecessors, but I think you could be put to better use else ware. So effective immediately you are fired from your position as Senior Aid to the Minister of Magic."

Percy just stood there, completely surprised. He tried to say something, but it only came out as incoherent sputtering.

"However," Kingsley said after a few seconds, "I am putting you in charge of any sub-department you want at the Ministry. Take the weekend and think it over and owl me on Monday with a few choices. I'll make the final decision but I can almost guarantee you'll have your first choice.

"_Thank you_ Sir," Percy said, as he bowed deeply, his glasses nearly falling off his face as he did so.

_Hope you all liked it. I spent the last few days working on it. Anyway. I'm going to do things a bit differently this time around. I'm not going to tell you how many reviews I got for the last chapter. I'm not going to do any "guess what's next" contests. And I'm not going to be giving weekly updates to the story. The chapters will be updated as I write them, although I don't think there will be more than two weeks between chapter updates. Also I am working on a few other stories that will be posted soon. So please read and review this story and tell me what you think. Also, thank you to all the people who read and reviewed _ Harry Potter and What Happened After_ and to all of you have stayed with me on this hiatus of mine. Oh yes, as always…May the Force be with you_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: As always I don't own most of the characters in this story, only the story line and a few original characters are mine. _

_So a quick recap/reminder might be in order so here are some quick built points to help you remember. (I'm gong to try and do this at the beginning of each chapter to help you guys remember)_

_Previously in Harry Potter and His Auror Training:_

_Kingsley is now the permanent Minister of Magic. He came to the Burrow and offered jobs to a few people…_

_Mr. Weasley has been promoted to the Head of The Department Magical Law Enforcement _

_Percy has been allowed to pick any sub-department to head up_

_Harry has been offered a job as an Auror with an accelerated training program._

_George now has an expanded contract with the ministry to provide defense against the dark arts supplies_

_Ron is now a partner at WWW_

_And Now the continuing adventures of Harry Potter and His Auror Training…._

Chapter 2: The Weekend

Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys spend all of Friday talking about their offers. Ron and George spend almost four hours in George's room talking about different ideas Ron had. Percy spent all of the afternoon pouring over every sub-department of every sub-department of every department in the Ministry. When he came out for dinner he had a list 5 feet long.

"Percy," said Mrs. Weasley when she saw her son's list, "Kingsley asked for a _few_ choices."

"I know," replied Percy, "this list only has 10 choices on it."

"Then how is it five feet long?" asked an exasperated Ginny.

"Pros and cons of each position," said Percy.

"You're an odd one big brother," said George as he sat down.

"Thank you, I'd like to think so," mumbled Percy.

George just stared at his brother, at a complete loss for words.

As dinner was getting started a brown owl flew in the window, dropping 3 rolls of parchment and a note in front of Harry and then flew out. Harry recognized the writing in the address on the note as Kingsley's so he read opened that first, and it was a good thing he did.

_Harry,_

_Sorry it took me so long to get this to you, but I've been swamped all day by press requests and such. I'm sure you know how that feels by now. Anyway, I wanted to get this to you as soon as possible and with the ministry still struggling I'm acting as not only Minister of Magic but also as head of the Auror department. The three rolls of parchment that arrived with this note are your contract for the Auror department, a list of books and supplies that you will need to get before you start as well as an official letter of congratulations on your acceptance into the Auror department. Harry, you have a lot of work ahead of you, but I have confidence that you can succeed. I never had the pleasure of meeting you parents, but from what I've been told you have you're father's sense of loyalty and your mother's drive and morals. With that combination you will no doubt excel in the Auror department. _

_Kingsley_

"What's it say?" asked Ginny.

Harry handed her the letter and addressed the rest of the table, "It's from Kingsley. He says he said he wanted to congratulate me and he explains what the rolls of parchment are."

Harry picked up the role of parchment labeled _books/supplies _and untied the string holding it closed. He unrolled the parchment and watched as it rolled down to the floor and then as it rolled about 3 feet behind his chair.

"Wow" said Hermione, "what is that?"

"A list of books and supplies I'll need for training and work," said Harry with dread.

"Wow," said Ron, "I knew there was a reason I didn't want to be an Auror."

"How much of that is books and how much of that is supplies?" asked George, eyeing the list.

"About half and half," said Harry as he took a quick look over the list of books on top of the page. There were a few titles he recognized, and had already read for school or had gotten as presents. The other titles he had no idea about, although they sounded like dark arts, potions, and spell books as well as things that may or may not be legal for students to have.

Harry looked at the supplies list also, and was glad that he recognized most of the stuff on the list, and already had about a third of it left over from school.

"What are the other two scrolls?" asked Ron

"A contract and official letter of congratulations of being accepted to the department," said Harry as he started to roll of the book and supply list.

"Well, what does the contract say?" asked Ron.

Harry finished rolling up the book and supply list and unrolled the contract. It was only about a foot long. Harry quickly read it over and as he reached the bottom he saw his beginning salary…"it says I'll be working any where from 20-80 hours a week and that I'll be the head of the group working to finish apprehending all death eaters."

"What about pay?" asked Ron

"It says I'll start out at about 10,000 galleons a year," said Harry a bit surprised

"I'd forgotten how much Aurors make when they first start," said Mr. Weasley. "I know that as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement I'll get about 30,000- 40,000 galleons a year. I'm pretty sure the head of the Auror department makes about 50,000 galleons a year."

"Wow," said Ron and Ginny together.

"Well they deserve it," said Percy, "I've read some mission reports for Aurors and the stuff they have to go through is insane."

"Well it's not about the money," said Harry, rolling up the contract and putting it to the side. He'd look it over in detail later and then sign it and send it back. "I want to make sure there are no more people who have to go through life with out a parent because of some dark wizard who's only goal is world domination and who's only method is fear and plundering."

"A noble cause if there ever was one," said Mr. Weasley, raising his glass in a toast.

The family went through the rest of dinner talking about what different people in the ministry made. This prompted Percy to read off his list of sub-departments he wanted to run. Ron was able to stop Percy from giving a complete history of each sub-department, but only just.

"Well I guess we'll be going to Diangon ally tomorrow," said Mrs. Weasley as dinner was finishing up.

* * *

The next morning the whole family woke up early to go to Diagon Ally. As always Ron woke up late and had to rush through a shower and getting dressed, causing him to come down the stairs half way through breakfast with his pants on backwards and two different socks on.

Ginny took one look at him and burst out laughing. "Ron I don't think I want to know what you're going to do with the fly in the back, but good luck to you."

"Wha?" Ron asked as he looked down at himself. "Oh, for the love of..."

Ron went back up the stairs and came down a few minutes later dressed…correctly. Everyone was still chuckling as he sat down and forked 5 sausages, eating 3 of them in one bite.

"Ron, manners please," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Sorry Mum," said Ron, putting the rest of the sausages on a plate and taking another five.

Half an hour later the whole family was standing in front of the fireplace, getting ready to floo to Weasley Wizarding Wheezes.

"Alright everybody take some floo powder and let's go," said Mr. Weasley, holding out the jar of emerald green powder to everyone.

After everyone had taken a pinch of the powder Mr. Weasley lit a fire in the fireplace and threw his pinch in. He stepped in and shouted "Weasley Wizarding Wheezes," and with a sudden spinning motion was gone.

Next went George, then Bill, Fleur, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Charley and finally Mrs. Weasley.

Harry was just finishing dusting himself of as Mrs. Weasley landed in the fireplace. Harry took a look around; he hadn't been here since before his 6th year when it had just opened. It hadn't changed much. There were some new products on the shelves, but other than that the store looked exactly the same. George had reopened it only two weeks after the battle, and since then it had done booming business. It seemed everybody wanted a good laugh after the two years of fear.

"Well folks, I'm going to show ittie bitty Roniekins here around the shop," said George as he put an arm around Ron's shoulders and steered him towards the back, "starting with the bathrooms." George conjured a toilet scrubber and handed it to Ron

Everyone had a good laugh at this. "See you later Ron," said Harry.

"If you're still alive," added Ginny.

And with that the rest of the family went out to Diagon Ally. "Lets meet back here at about ten O'clock," said Mrs. Weasley.

There was a chorus of "See yous" and "I want to gos…" and "wait for mes…" as the large group separated into chunks of two or three people

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione all went towards Flourish & Blotts. Once they were there Harry pulled his book list out of his backpack. Hermione had taught Harry how to make his backpack store like her beaded purse, able to hold loads of stuff in a small space. Harry needed around 20 books, and with out the bag the magically expanded bag he would not be able to carry all of them.

Harry and Ginny walked around the store looking for the books Harry needed while Hermione just walked around, looking for anything that looked interesting.

Harry and Ginny spent half an hour looking around Flourish & Blotts and only found about a third of the books that Harry needed. Harry went up to the counter and bought the 6 books that he did find. "If you don't mind, where might I find the rest of the books on this list sir?" Harry asked, showing the man standing behind the counter the list of books.

"You'll have to go to Knockturn Ally I'm afraid," said the man, "But you're Harry Potter so I suspect you'll have no problem handling what ever they throw at you over there."

"Yeah," said Harry, not sure what else to say.

Hermione bought a few books and then the trio went over to the apothecary to refresh their potion supplies. Harry also got a few specialty items and was able to get everything on his list.

By the time they finished at the apothecary it was about 10 o'clock. "There's only one thing on the supply list that I still need," said Harry, looking at the last item. "_Owl_" it said.

Ginny looked at the list and sighed, "come on Harry, you can't put it off forever." And with that she practically dragged him over to Eeylops Owl Emporium.

As they walked into the dark shop the shopkeeper came around the counter to great them. "Ah, Mr. Potter, I was wondering if I'd be seeing you again. I was so sorry to hear about your Owl, she was a fine one. I have another female from her line if you'd like to take a look." The man motioned to a cage with a beautiful snowy owl who looked a lot like Headwig.

"No, thank you," said Harry, "I think another Snowy would be too much of a reminder."

"Well then maybe the opposite," said the shopkeeper thoughtfully "I've been breading a line of Midnight Owls. Very smart, very dependable, and their coloring is mate black." The man pointed to a cage that Harry thought was empty, until he saw the two yellow eyes staring at him.

The shopkeeper drew his wand and with a silent summoning charm drew the cage and owl to him. Harry could see the owl with a bit more detail now. It was a bit smaller than Headwig had been, but it looked muscular. "She's my newest, only a year old, she wont grow any more, but she'll be a hard worker and she'll outlast any other bread out there. Midnights are a rare breed, only magical folk have been able to capture them. I'm lucky to have found a male and female that'll breed together. I'll give him to you for 40 galleons."

Harry just looked at the beautiful owl in front of him. He could already feel a connection between him and the lovely black bird. But 40 galleons was a lot. "I'll give you 20," said Harry

"35," said the shop keeper

"27," said Harry, not willing to go any higher, "and I'll tell any body who asks that this is where I've gotten both my owls."

"Deal," said the man, walking back behind the counter.

Harry paid the man and along with Hermione and Ginny walked out of the shop, glad to have a new owl, but still missing Headwig.

"Come on, let's go back to WWW, I'm sure George won't mind us leaving…"Ginny paused, "Harry you still have to name her."

Harry thought about it while they were walking back to the shop. For some reason he started thinking about Greek mythology. "How about Artemis?" said Harry as they reached the front of WWW, which was already crowded with eager young witches and wizards wanting to get their hands on the latest Weasley prank kit.

The Owl in the cage gave a soft hoot of what sounded like approval before either Ginny or Hermione could answer. "Well I guess it's settled then," said Harry, "Artemis it is."

Harry, Ginny and Hermione finally were able to make their way into the shop, where they immediately ran into Ron, who was now dressed in bright Purple robes and levitating around a stack of joke boxes. "Hey Guys," he said as he went past, with a quick flick of his wand he send the boxes to the shelf. "Nice owl Harry," said Ron as he quickly walked passed the group again.

"Thanks," said Harry, "Do you think George would mind if I kept him here until I'm done with shopping?"

"I wouldn't mind at all," said George as he seemingly appeared from nowhere. In a complete contrast to Ron, who looked rushed and a bit overwhelmed, George looked calm, collected and completely in charge of the situation. "Ron, take five and show these three upstairs." He turned to Harry, "Keep the owl in my apartment for right now."

"Thanks" said Harry as he, Ginny and Hermione followed Ron towards the back of the shop and a to a door marked "Private".

Ron opened the door and muttered something.

"What was that Ron?" asked Hermione as they went up the stairs that the door had revealed.

"The password," said Ron, "George uses it to keep people out."

"And how many times did you forget to say the password?" asked Ginny

"A few," said Ron, "George used the Girls Dorms in Gryffindor Tower as a model."

Harry, Ginny and Hermione, laughed. Ron just rubbed his ass in pain.

"So let me see the bird," said Ron as they walked into the living room of the apartment."

"Her name is Artemis," said Harry as he took the sheet off the cage.

"Wow," said Ron, "she's beautiful. I've never seen a black owl before,"

"The shop owner said the breed was rare and that they were called Midnight Owls."

"Well hopefully she's as loyal and dependable as Headwig." Said Ron, patting Harry on the back. "Where are you headed next?" he asked

"Knockturn Ally," Harry said, and turning to Ginny and Hermione he said, "Which means you two are staying here, I'm taking Mr. Weasley and Bill with me."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Asked Hermione, "I'm as good as either of them,"

"Harry…," said Ginny,

"No Ginny!," said Harry, "I've been there and I can tell you that two women who look like you would not last to long. So for this one time please let me protect you two. I'm not being stupid and going alone, I'm taking two other very smart, very talented wizards with me."

"Harry…." Ginny tried to start again.

"Ginny," Harry said softly, "please…"

"Harry I'm trying to tell you that I'm ok with it and that I want you to be safe." Ginny said forcefully, cutting Harry off.

"Oh…um thank you," said Harry. Ever since the clerk at Flourish & Blotts had told him that he'd have to go to Diagon Ally to get the rest of his books he'd been preparing himself for a big fight from his friends, especially Ginny. This was the last thing he had expected from her.

"Harry, you're going to be an Auror, and I realize that I can't come along on all your missions with you. It's going to be hard for me, but I have to accept that fact. And that's what I'm doing now, I'm accepting that you don't want me to go with you because you're being protective." Ginny took a deep breath, and her calm and composed shell, which had held until now, cracked a bit. "But Harry, know that I'm my offer to help is always open, and know that you better take me up on that help when you can because if you don't what ever danger you're facing is going to be the least of your worries."

Harry was scared at that moment, and he wouldn't have been afraid to admit it. "Ok Gin, I promise if I ever need you're help on something I'll ask."

Ginny's mood became happy again and the dangerous, dark, cloud that seemed to envelop her a few moments ago seemed to disappear. "Good, now, I want to see what George has come up with now, let's go down stairs."

Harry just nodded, a bit amazed at the speed with which Ginny was able to change moods.

"She gets that from mum's side of the family," Ron said to Harry quietly as they walked down the stairs, a bit behind the girls, "I've seen mum go off on Fred and George like that a few times, dad also. Remember the Howler I got second year after we crashed dad's car?"

"Yeah," said Harry. He and Ron had missed the Hogwarts express at the beginning of their second year because Dobby had been trying to prevent Harry from going to Hogwarts. The boys, seeing no other way, had taken Mr. Weasley's car, which had spells put on it so it could fly and become invisible. The boys had followed the Hogwarts Express to school and then accidentally crashed it into the Whomping Willow, causing the car to be nearly destroyed and to go feral in the Forbidden Forest. When Mrs. Weasley had heard about this she had been furious, sending Ron a Howler, which was a letter that screamed at him and then blew up in his face, literally. Harry remembered it well.

"Well what Ginny just did is what mum would have done if I had been home, although about 10 times worse and with a lose of privileges." Ron shuttered at the mere thought of it.

"I'll try to remember that," said Harry, watching Ginny as she and Hermione went into the shop to look around. Harry on the other hand went in to the back room that was filled with WWW's famous Defense Against the Dark Arts equipment, where he was meet by George.

"Harry, my friend, how are you?" asked George

"Fine," said Harry hesitantly, not really sure why George was putting on his sales guise for Harry.

"I've got a present for you," said George, steering Harry towards the back of the back room.

"What is it?" asked Harry, putting a hand on his wand just incase this wasn't really George and the imposter tried to attack him or something.

"Something that I want you to take on a trial run and then give me feed back," said George, leading Harry towards a box that was two feet tall and two feet wide.

"What is it?" asked Harry a second time.

"Remember how Kingsley said that he wanted me to start providing the Ministry with more Defense stuff?" George asked

"Yes," said Harry, thinking that he may be catching on to what George was getting at, "is that what is in the box?"

"Yeah, kind of," said George, opening the box for Harry to see, "I've put together a DADA kit for the ministry to distribute to its Aurors. I had Ron help me with what to include, but I want somebody who is going through the training to tell me if there is anything missing or anything that isn't needed." George closed the box and shrunk it so it would fit in Harry's pocket, "As you're going through the training just keep in mind what's in the box and tell me what you think of it all. Use the stuff and tell me how it works and if there's anything I need to change."

"Ok," said Harry, taking the shrunk box from George's hand. "I can already tell you that you're going to have to re package it, there's no way an Auror will have time to unshrink a box and go looking through it for what they need. Make it all readily at hand."

"The box is just the initial packaging," said George, "all the stuff is packed in there neatly, including a belt that everything can attach to and that makes it all lighter. Plus there's a pouch on there that has a carry all spell on it. It's the one that Hermione uses on her beaded purse."

"How do you know about that?" asked Harry

"Who do you think taught her the spell in the first place?" asked George. "Fred and I put that spell on all our shopping bags, Hermione saw this and asked us to teach it to her."

"I'd be happy to help," said Harry as he started to walk back towards the main shop

"And Harry," George said, "Remember that everything here is free for you. You gave Fred and I the start up money we needed and since you wont let me pay you back…"

"Thank George," Harry said, turning back to his friend, "I'm glad the money went to good use, this place is great. You two had a gift, and if I'm not mistaken you still have that gift. Keep this place going, it's a fine way to Honor Fred's memory."

"I plan to," said George as Harry walked out of the back room and into the front shop. There, Harry found most of the Weasley clan talking, and watching Ron as he rushed around the shop, restocking shelves and dealing with customers.

Harry went over to Mr. Weasley, who was standing next to Bill and Fleur, talking about their jobs at Gringots.

"Mr. Wealey," Harry said, "I'm sorry to interrupt but I need a favor."

"Of course, what ever you need Harry," said Mr. Weasley.

"Well I wanted you, and Bill, to go with me into Knockturn Ally…"

"No, I forbid it," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Me too," Fleur said, her fluty voice no less threatening than Mrs. Weasley's

"I need to get some more books for Auror training," said Harry, pulling out the list of books and supplies. "The man at Flourish & Blotts said that Knockturn Ally was the only place to get them."

"Well you'll have to find some other way," said Mrs. Weasley

Harry sighed, he knew one way to make Mrs. Weasley let him take her husband and oldest son with him, although he didn't like having to resort to it. "Alright," Harry said, managing to sound dejected, "I guess I'll just go alone. It can't be that dangerous can it? I defeated Voldemort after all, I can defend myself against a bunch of angry, grudge holding, dark arts practicing people right."

Mrs. Weasley's firm gaze held for a full five seconds before she broke down, "You're right," she said, "Safety in numbers and all. But be careful, only get what you need and no lollygagging."

"Alright Molly," said Mr. Weasley, ushering Harry and Bill out the door, "We'll be safe."

* * *

Half an hour later Harry, Bill and Mr. Weasley came back to WWW, with only a minor scratch between the three of them as any evidence of being attacked; which they had been, but only once. A quick shield charm on Harry's part and an immobilization curse from both Mr. Weasley and Bill put an end to that. Harry had gotten the scratch after they had finished in Knockturn Ally by tripping on the way back to the shop and having to grab on to a sharp signpost to keep from falling.

"Well that was productive," said Mr. Weasley as they walked into a still crowded WWW.

"Hey guys," said George, "We're about to close down for Lunch, and when I say close down I mean we're going to close the doors to new customers so we can get these guys out before noon. Everybody else has gone up to The Leakey Caldron, Ron and I'll see you in about an hour."

Harry, Bill, and Mr. Weasley walked up to the Leakey Caldron, finding the rest of the family, minus George and Ron, sitting in the main room.

As soon as Harry, Bill and Mr. Weasley got into the room Hermione stood up and said, "list your injuries,"

"We're fine thanks," said Bill sarcastically, "and yes, Harry got everything he needed."

"Great," said Charley impatiently, "now tell us who got hurt where and how. There may be futures riding on this."

"I scratched my hand," said Harry

"Good," said Hermione, "how?"

"I tripped on the way back and scratched it on a sign post," said Harry.

Hermione groaned, "so you weren't attacked?" she asked.

"We were," said Mr. Weasley, looking at his family and wondering why they were acting so strangely. "It was only a few people and Harry quickly threw up a shield charm and Bill and I both shot Immobilization curses at the people attacking us."

"Yes," shouted Percy," holding out her hand. "Pay up folks, come on I won fair and square."

"You bet on who was going to get hurt?" Bill asked, stunned.

"Yep," said Percy, slightly distracted by counting his winnings. "Some one didn't pay in full," he said after a few seconds.

"Sorry," said Charley, "it's all I've got for right now"

"I'm going to hold you to it," said Percy, pocketing his winnings.

"I'm sure you will," muttered Charley.

"Wait, how did _Percy _win?" asked Harry, sitting down at the table.

"I bet that you'd be attacked and that none of you would get hurt in the attack."

"And I thought that Harry's injury would be minor," said Hermione, "I figured he'd get hit with some stunning spell or something before Mr. Weasley and Bill stepped in and finished off who ever attacked him."

"Any one else?" asked Mr. Wesley, looking around the table.

"I may have bet on one of you having to be carried back," said Ginny, "no one in particular though.

"I thought that Bill would get hit with something," said Mrs. Weasley.

"I thought it would be you Dad," said Charley

"I thought that you would come to your senses before you went into Knockturn Ally," said Fleur, "But obviously I was wrong."

"Gee, thanks," said Harry.

Luckily it was then that George and Ron walked in, "So who won," asked Ron.

"Percy," said Bill.

"What about you two," asked Mr. Weasley, "who did you bet on?"

"I thought you might get taken prisoner Dad," said Ron.

"I had Bill biting somebody," said George. "You didn't bite somebody did you?" he asked.

"No," said Bill

"Darn," George grumbled.

"How about lunch," said Harry, "Percy's buying."

"Wait what?" asked Percy

"That's what you get when you're the only one with money at the table," said Harry.

An hour later the nine Weasleys, Harry and Hermione walked out of the Leakey Caldron, full and ready to go home.

"We've got to get back to the shop," said George, snickering slightly at Ron's half hearted groan, but we'll see you all tonight."

"Fleur and I are going to head back to the cottage," said Bill, "Thanks for having us for the last few days." And with that he and Fleur spun on the spot and with a sharp crack disappeared.

"Does anybody else have anything they want to do here?" asked Mrs. Weasley. Everyone shook his or her head. "Good, then lets get home."

The group followed Ron and George back to WWW's shop, which already had a line forming outside.

Ron just groaned as he saw the line, George had a huge smile on his face, "Cheer up little brother, just think of the profit."

"George, I have yet to see a single knut enter my pocket,"

"That's because you get paid at the end of the day." Said George, "and even then you won't see any money enter your pocket."

"Why?" asked Ron, suddenly very concerned, "You said I'd get half the profits"?

"And you will," said George, "but I have all the profits sent to Gringots at the end of the day. They'll split them up between my account and yours."

"I don't have an account at Gringots," said Ron

"Yes you do," said George, "I had Bill open one for you. There's no way you're going to be able to carry around your share of the profits in your pockets. I'll take you at the end of the day to see it."

"Ok," said Ron, "let's get to work," a bit of a spring in his step from imagining just how much money he would be earning over the next few weeks.

"Come on," said Ginny, "lets go home"

A few minutes later Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Charley, Percy and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were in the Burrow, dusting them selves off.

"How are you kids going to spend the afternoon?" asked Mr. Weasley?

"I'm going to sit out by the pond an read," said Hermione, "I got a few new books on wizarding law today."

"I'm going to start packing," said Charley. When he saw the somewhat surprised looks from his parents he sighed. "Mum, Dad, you can't have thought that I was staying forever. Dragon Breeding season starts in a week and they need all the trainer-handlers they can get."

"Fine," said Mr. Weasley, "when are you leaving?"

"Monday," said Charley.

"What about you Percy dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley, seemingly ignoring what her second eldest son had just said.

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," said Percy. Percy had started taking hours long walks a few days after the family had returned to the Burrow. He claimed the walks were to give him time to clear his head. Although Hermione had commented that they were also the only way he could get some alone time. Which Percy had always seemed to need, and which he must have gotten somewhat used to while living alone.

"I'm going to take my Firebolt out for a test run," said Ginny, an excited glimmer in her eye. "You coming with Harry?" she asked as she started up the stairs to change into clothing more appropriate for Quidditch.

"No, I've got four books to read before I start training Monday" said Harry, regret heavy in his voice. He would have loved to go flying with Ginny, the only Weasley who could challenge him on a broom. Flying with her was exhilarating and Harry always found himself loving her more afterwards.

"Alright," said Ginny, a bit saddened, she loved flying with Harry. Not only because he was the only person she knew who could challenge her on a broom. It was also because of the way that Harry seemed to light up completely when he was flying. It was as if he had no care in the world.

Harry walked with Ginny up to her room, Charley only a few steps ahead of them. "Have fun Gin, I wish I had time to fly with you today."

"So do I," said Ginny, pulling Harry closer to her. She drew him into a deep kiss. The kiss was full of passion, love and longing. Ginny let her lips linger on Harry's as they broke the kiss for air.

"I love you Ginny," said Harry, stroking her cheek softly.

"I love you too," said Ginny, a huge smile spread across her face. She took the Harry's hand from her cheek and kissed it softly, "Go, read your books,"

"Ok," said Harry, a huge smile on his face also. He kissed her on the forehead quickly before heading up the stairs to the room that he and Ron were sharing.

Harry spent he next 6 hours in his and Ron's room, reading two of the four books that he needed to read before Monday. When Ron and George got home he went down to dinner, glad for the break. He listened to Ron go on about how much money WWW had made that day and about how much he was starting to enjoy working there. He listened to Hermione talk about her law books and he listened to Ginny talk about how much fun she had had flying and he listened to Percy talk about how he had cut a few of his choices of sub departments he wanted to be head of.

After dinner he spent a few hours talking with Ginny about the fears she had for him and what he was going to be doing for a career. He reassured her as best he could, and assured her that he was just as scared as she was. Ginny admitted that Harry was probably even more scared than Ginny, and it was nice of him to pretend to be fearless for her. Then Ginny said that she was tired from flying all afternoon, and that she was going to sleep.

Harry went back up to his and Ron's room and read another book, then at almost one in the morning he finally went to sleep.

Harry woke up at about 8 o'clock the next morning as Ron slammed the door on his way out of the room. He was late again.

Harry turned over and tried to get back to sleep, and after half an hour of trying Harry finally admitted to himself that it wasn't going to happen. Harry went down stairs, ate a quick breakfast and after denying another invitation from Ginny to fly went back up to his and Ron's room and picked up his fourth, and last, book.

Harry started reading, but by noon Harry was only half way through. He was having trouble absorbing the information on the pages. Every once in a while he would read a page and then realize that he hadn't absorbed any of what was on it, so he had to go back and read it again. Harry had spent the last half hour re-reading a page about 5 times. That's when there was a knock on the door.

"Harry, it's me," came Ginny's voice from the other side of the door.

"Come on in Gin," said Harry, happily putting the book down and shifting position on the cot so that Ginny could sit with him.

Instead of Ginny coming to sit with him she grabbed his hands and pulled him up and towards the door.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as Ginny started to pull him down the stairs.

"Outside," said Ginny, "You need a break and I want to spend some real time with my boyfriend. So we're going swimming in the pond."

It was then that Harry saw that Ginny was wearing a short sleeve shirt that reached half way down her thighs.

"Ginny," Harry, said, pulling against her to get her to stop.

"What?" asked Ginny, finally stopping out side her room, "Harry you need a break, you've been closed up in that room for the past 24 hours. Harry I really hope this isn't how you're going to be for the next few months because for the last year I've loved you with out you being in my life. I don't think I can do that any more, especially since you'll only be a few floors up."

Harry just smiled and wiped the small tear away from Ginny's eye. "Gin, I'm not going to be this closed off for the next few months, I just have four books to read in 2 days. And as for loving me with out me being in your life, I'm sorry, and I can promise you that that's now how this relationship is going to be. I may have to go on missions for extended periods, but I promise I'll do everything in my considerable power to keep us from being apart for to long. And Gin, the only reason I wanted to stop is because I need to change into swim trunks, or at least shorts."

Ginny just smiled, "fine," she said, pretending to be annoyed, "change if you must."

Harry smiled and with a crack was gone. He had apparated to Ron's room, where he changed. Less than a minute later, with another crack he was back with Ginny.

"Good, lets go," said Ginny excitedly.

A few moments later the two teenagers were running towards the small pond that the Weasleys had on their property. Harry jumped in, but Ginny stopped at the edge.

"Ginny, come on it, the waters great." Said Harry, finally seeming to calm down a bit.

"Let me get this shirt off," said Ginny as she started to pull the long shirt over her head. As Ginny took of the shirt she revealed what she was wearing. It was a dark green bikini that hugged her curves very nicely. As Ginny pulled the shirt over her head she saw Harry staring at her. "Well what do you think?" asked Ginny, striking a slight pose.

"It' looks…you look absolutely amazing in it." Harry managed to say. "Where did you get it?"

Ginny blushed at this question, "Hermione and I went shopping in muggle London a few weeks ago. She convinced me to get it. She said you'd like it."

"Oh I love it Gin," said Harry, "although I think you better get in the water soon."

"Why?" asked Ginny, still standing on shore.

"Because if your mother sees you in that she's going to explode, and then you won't be allowed out of the house for a long long time." Said Harry, letting himself float on his back in the water.  
"Oh yea," said Ginny. She quickly jumped in the water, surfacing right next to Harry, who couldn't help but notice just how amazing and hot she looked as the water streamed down her pale skin and over her perfect breasts.

"Ginny, you are the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on," said Harry, meaning every word of it."

Ginny swam up to Harry and gave him a short, passionate kiss. "your not to bad looking yourself," she said, suddenly swimming away from him.

Harry swam after her, unable to keep himself from laughing with joy.

The couple played in the water for a while, swimming around and just having a good time. After a while they were just floating together, holding hands and looking at clouds.

After a few minutes of this Ginny suddenly flipped over and jokingly attacked Harry, dunking him under water.

She released him and he came up quickly, gasping for air. "Oh, you're going to pay for that." He jumped at her, throwing his arms around her and pulling her close so she couldn't dunk him again. She struggled a bit and soon they were facing each other again, kissing passionately.

Harry's hands started to move down Ginny's body, eventually coming to rest on her hips. Ginny's arms went around Harry's neck. They came together, kissing passionately.

Ginny smiled slightly against Harry's mouth as she felt something stiff pressing at her leg. "Harry, is that what I think it is?" she asked.

"Well it's not my wand," said Harry, blushing slightly.

"Good" said Ginny, kissing Harry softly as her hand slid down his stomach and grasped his hard dick through his swim trunks.

Harry gasped in surprise as Ginny grasped him. "Gin, what are you doing?" he asked. Part of him was wondering what she was doing. But another part of him knew exactly what she was doing, and that part didn't want her to stop.

"I'm ready Harry," Ginny said seductively, "I want to take our relationship to the next level. I love you and I know you love me, and I've wanted you in this way for most of the summer."

Harry groaned as Ginny pulled down his swim trunks under water and started to stroke his hard cock with one of her hands. "Gin, I've wanted you since the end of my sixth year." He kissed her heavily as he moved his hands slightly, pulling the strings holding her bikini bottoms on. Then he reached between her legs with on hand and slipped two fingers into her pussy.

Ginny gasped into Harry's mouth as his fingers slipped inside of her and started to pump in and out slowly. Ginny let Harry's hard cock go as his inexperienced hands explored her young pussy.

The two teens were pressed up against each other and Ginny could feel Harry's hard dick rubbing against her. Harry's thumb was rubbing her hard clit, and that plus his fingers inside of her sent waves of pleasure coursing through her, and she felt them gathering in the pit of her stomach. She started whispering in his ear, giving him directions like, "Faster, to the left, up, harder, oh right there." After only a few minutes Harry was causing more pleasure than Ginny had ever dreamed possible with fingers. Suddenly, as Harry slipped a hand under her bikini top and started to massage her breast with his hand she felt the small ball of pleasure that had build in the pit of her stomach explode, sending waves of ecstasy coursing through her.

Harry let his fingers slip out of Ginny's pussy as it spasmed with her orgasm. He held Ginny close to him as she convulsed with pleasure. Her breath coming in shuttering gasps.

After about a minute Ginny shuttered one last time and slumped a bit in to Harry's arms. "I love you Ginny," Harry said as he leaned in and kissed her softly.

"Wow," Ginny said after they broke the kiss. "That was great. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I don't know," said Harry, blushing a bit.

"Well it was great," said Ginny, leaning in and kissing Harry softly, "and I love you too." Ginny smiled and reached down, grabbing Harry's still hard dick and smiling. "You want more?" asked Ginny, slowly rubbing his long hard rod.

Harry grunted something that sounded like "Yes." He pulled Ginny close again; letting his hands slide down her back and onto her bare ass. He kissed her passionately, squeezing her ass a bit.

Ginny let out a little squeak as Harry squeezed her ass, then she spread her legs a bit and guided his dick towards her waiting slit. When Harry was at her entrance he pushed softly against the tight hole. Ginny gasped suddenly as she felt Harry slowly start to fill her with his cock.

Harry stopped suddenly as Ginny gasped. "Ginny what is it?" he asked, concerned.

"Just a little pain," muttered Ginny with her eyes closed, "it's normal," she assured him. Ginny opened her eyes to see Harry staring at her with a concerned look on his face.

" Do you want to stop?" Harry asked, worried that he would hurt her more.

Ginny nodded, "I want to be with you Harry, I really do, but this isn't the right place for our first time."

Harry pulled out, knowing that if he stayed inside Ginny's tight pussy much longer he wouldn't be able to stop himself from continuing. "It's fine," said Harry, kissing Ginny's forehead. "I don't want to force you into anything you're not ready for."

"It's not that I'm not ready," said Ginny, looking around for her bikini bottoms, "it's just that I want our first time to be special." Ginny looked down now, a bit embarrassed, "I know it's going to hurt the first time, or maybe even the first few times, and I'm a bit afraid of that."

Harry took Ginny's chin in his fingers and tilted her head up so their eyes met. "Ginny I don't ever want to hurt you. If you want to wait, we will. When ever _you're _ready we can have sex." Harry leaned in and kissed Ginny softly on the lips, "Remember," he whispered, "I love you and I'd do anything for you."

Ginny smiled and grabbed Harry's dick. "Just because I don't want to have sex doesn't mean I can't help you with your…problem," she said.

Ginny wrapped her legs around Harry's waist, letting the length of his hard cock rub against her slit. She slowly started to move her hips, rubbing his hard dick against her slit and clit.

Soon Harry had joined her in her movements, grinding against her naked slit. Soon both teens were groaning as their orgasms neared. Harry was the first to cum, releasing his load into the water that they were chest deep in.

Ginny could feel Harry's dick convulsing against her clit and this sent her over the edge. As her second orgasm in the last 10 minutes coursed through her Ginny couldn't help but marvel at the love she felt for the young man holding her close.

A few moments later, after both teens had come down from their sexual highs they gathered up their things and went inside for, separate, showers.

For a little while after he showered Harry thought that things might be awkward between him and Ginny. But they were not; in fact their little physical excursion seemed to have brought the two of them much closer.

_A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out, I took a lot of time on it so tell me what you think with a review. I'm not going to do the thing that I did last time with telling you how many reviews I got each chapter, I think some of my readers found it annoying. Anyway, I've been very busy lately and haven't had much time to write. Also I've been working on the first 'birthday' one shot and that had been my focus for a little while, and it will be again until I get it finished, which should be about another two weeks at the most. So, thanks to all the people who reviewed he first chapter and who are still reading this after it took me almost 3 weeks to update. As always May the Force Be With You. _


	3. Chapter 3: Auror Training Day One

_A/N: So, I'm back…kinda, see the A/N at the end for more, but with out further ado here is chapter three. I hope you all enjoy._

Chapter 3: Auror Training Day One

When Harry woke up the next morning it was still dark out, meaning it was early, very early. This put Harry on instant alert, he usually woke up with the sun.

Harry didn't move, the only way anybody would know he was awake would be to look directly at his face and to see his open eyes. Even though Voldemort had been defeated Harry still slept with his wand close by, all it would take would be for him to silently summon it to his waiting hand. Harry had learned how to do only one spell with out a wand so far, and that was calling his wand to him.

Harry didn't do that though because if there was anybody in the room the second Harry's wand started to move they would know he was awake, and would have a second to attack while Harry was all but defenseless.

Then Harry heard it, between Ron's snores, the squeak of the loose floorboard by Ron's door. It would squeak anytime there was somebody standing on it.

Harry could not only see Ron's sleeping form, slightly lit by the moonlight from the window, but could hear him snoring. There was an intruder in the room. Harry's first thought was to hope that everybody else in the house was ok. Then he started to wonder how the intruder had gotten past the security measures that the Ministry and the Weasleys had put up. _It doesn't matter, the intruder is here now, deal with that and worry about the security, and others, later. _Harry's thoughts raced. If he called his wand to him he'd be given away. If he moved, he'd be given away. If he did nothing he'd die.

Harry did the only thing he could think of. With a sudden jerk of his body he threw his sheet up in the air and rolled away from where he had been, silently calling his wand to him.

Suddenly a spell shot at his sheet and hit right where he would have been if he hadn't moved, and judging by its red color it was a stupefying curse.

The spell not only crashed into the cot that Harry had been sleeping on, throwing it against the wall and making a huge racket, but it lit up the room. Showing Harry his disheveled looking attacker.

Harry didn't recognize the man in the millisecond that he was lit, and that was what mattered. Harry stood up and silently shot a Stupefying spell at his attacker. Harry's silent spells weren't great, and the spell only grazed the man's shoulder. The man only got knocked down, not knocked out, but it gave Harry the time to disarm the man and run over to him. By the time Harry got to the attacker Ron was up and had his wand sweeping the room. Harry could also hear at least 4 pairs of feet running up the stairs.

Harry looked at his attacker, who was still lying on the ground, hands spread out and a surprised, but mildly pleased look on his face. Harry pointed his wand between the man's eyes, and let as much anger as he could muster show in his face. "Who are you, and how did you get in here?" Harry growled. Apparently he was angry enough that a few red sparks shot out of the end of his wand.

At the same time Harry heard clicks as the lights in the room came on as Ron used the deluminator to turn them back on.

"I'm your sergeant," said the now clearly visible man, a pleased smirk sprouting on his face, "I'll be the one in charge of your Auror training."

"Sure you will," said Harry, not moving, "but what's your name, and how did you get in here.

"My name is Frank Greenman, and I'm highly placed in the Auror department, all I had to do to get in here was get clearance from Minister Shacklebolt. He says to tell you not to put your wand in your back pocket by the way."

Harry looked at the man for a second and then burst out laughing. "Alright, get up," said Harry backing away and putting his wand arm down. But he didn't give Frank back his wand.

At that point the door behind Frank burst open, revealing Mr. Weasley, Charley, Hermione, Ginny and George, all with wands drawn.

"Frank, what are you doing here?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"I'm here to take Harry to his Auror training. I was supposed to kidnap him in his sleep to freak him out, but he disarmed me before I could grab him. He's good, I'll give him that."

"That he is," said Mr. Weasley, smiling a bit. "Harry this is Sgt. Frank Greenman, he's an Auror trainer, you can give him his wand back.

"Sorry about that sir," said Harry, giving Frank his wand back.

Frank bent down and picked up a black bowler hat that must have fallen off his head when Harry had knocked him down. He put it back on, "No problem," he said, "I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I've been training Aurors for almost ten years now, and you're one of only ten that have woken up before I grabbed 'em, one of five who got out of the way after waking up, and the only one so far who was able to hit me with a spell. Two of the others who got out of the way got spells off, but they had to speak them and they missed. Tonks was one of the ones who got a spell off by the way, although I'm still not quite sure if it was intentional. She had just tripped over a trashcan and the spell shot into the ceiling.

Harry smiled, remembering Tonks and her clumsiness. "Thank you sir, that's high praise indeed. And thanks for the advice."

"Advise?" asked Mr. Weasley.

"Not to put his wand in his back pocket," said Frank, "Kingsley told me to tell Harry that if he woke up and I missed stunning him."

"When Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, Lupin, and the others came to get me before fifth year Moody told me not to put my wand in my back pocket. So only about 10 people in the world know about that and Kingsley is one of them."

"Never explain an identifier," Frank said, "that's your first lesson. Now get dressed. I usually get to bring in recruits in their sleeping cloths, which is either humiliating for them or disturbing for me." When a few people gave him a questioning look he sighed, "You'd be surprised just how many of the recruits I have to get sleep naked."

"I'll stay uninformed if you don't mind," Harry said, pulling his cloths out.

"And I'll go back to sleep," said Ron, putting his wand down and laying back in bed.

Everybody else mumbled agreement as they started back towards their rooms. Harry on the other hand went to the bathroom and quickly changed. No more than five minutes after he had nearly stupefied his Auror trainer Harry was dressed and ready to go.

"Alright Harry, you're the last one, I got everybody else already and they're all waiting at the Auror office for us. Let's go," said Frank.

Harry concentrated and turned on the spot, apparating inside the lobby of the ministry. Harry opened his eyes and looked around, it looked much the same as when he had come here with Mr. Wesley.

Harry followed Frank to the elevator. "Training area," said Frank as Harry got on. "You know this is the first time a recruit gets to walk in with me, usually I'm carrying them into the training area."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry, but he didn't get a response because that was when the elevator opened and Frank walked to a door that had no markings.

"Come on Potter," Frank said as he opened the door.

Harry walked into the training area, and saw four other people lying on the floor of the somewhat dark room.

"Want to help me wake 'em up?" asked Frank, the smile on his face telling Harry that this was one of his favorite parts of the Auror training.

"No, I wouldn't want to deprive you of that," said Harry, "plus these people and I are going to have to learn to trust each other I don't want to be the one waking them up like this."

"Suit yourself," said Frank, walking over to the four prone forms.

Harry watched as one by one Frank touched his wand to each of their heads, waking each of them up suddenly. Each one sat up violently, shouting something to the effect of "what, where am I?"

Each time this happened Harry thought he recognized the person's voice, although he couldn't place exactly who it was.

"Alright you five," Frank said once he had woken all of them up, "welcome to Auror training. I'm Sgt. Frank Greenman, but you can call me Sgt. G if you want, I'm the guy that's going to be training you for the next three months. Why don't you come over and meet the fifth member of your class and your class leader. I think all of you already know him."

As Frank led the other four Auror students over Harry started to be able to see details of their faces, and suddenly he recognized all of them.

"Hey guys," Harry said flatly as Ernie Macmillan, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Alicia Spinnet all became recognizable in the low light.

"Harry, I should have known, but why were we all asleep when we were brought here?" asked Ernie

"Yeah," Dean said, "Why were you standing over here when we were woken up?"

"It was because they don't trust us yet," said Seamus, "wasn't it? We were knocked out so we wouldn't know where we were being taken."

"No," said Alicia, "we're in the ministry, and from what I've heard there's nothing really secret about how Aurors are trained. Although I've got to admit I haven't heard much."

"Nope, Nothing secret," said Frank, "you were knocked out to teach you a lesson about sleeping lightly and that you are most vulnerable in your sleep."

"So Harry wasn't tested like us?" asked Seamus.

"No he was," said Frank with a small smile as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the low lit room. "Harry why don't you tell them what happened, every detail. Listen closely everyone, you'll learn a thing or two if you're smart."

Harry told them the story of what had happened when Frank tried to kidnap him. "…So any way, I had just gotten Sgt. G's name and how he had gotten past all the security spells that the Ministry had put on the Burrow when some of the Weasleys and Hermione burst in and Mr. Weasley confirmed what Sgt. G had told me. After that I gave him his wand back and then we came here."

Harry looked over the other four Auror students, all of whom had looks of amazement and awe on their faces.

Frank let the story sink in for a moment and then asked, "Alright what did you learn?"

"Keep your wand close," said Seamus

"Know how to summon it silently," said Anthony.

"Know your environment," said Dean.

"Know your own patterns," said Ernie

"Good all of you," said Frank, the pleased smile on his face gone, replaced by an expression of a teacher who was quizzing students. Which is exactly what he was. "But not great, you missed some things."

"Like what?" asked Seamus

"Like the fact that you have to be observant," said Harry, "I didn't recognize Sgt. G in the short flash of light, I also knew that red likely meant a _stupefying _curse, and that there were at least 4 people on their way up to help me."

"Not quite Harry," Frank said, "those footsteps could have been my back up. Also, you trusted Mr. Weasley with out question, for all you knew the five of them could have used Polyjuice potion to become your friends." Frank turned to the rest of the Auror trainees, addressing the five of them as a group, "However, in that type of situation it is more expedient to assume that your friends are who they say they are. But Harry should have done what?"

"He shouldn't have put his wand down until he was sure the footsteps he heard were the Weasleys and not your back up," said Ernie.

"Exactly," said Frank, conjuring six chairs. "Alright every one sit, we're going to go over every thing that Harry did when I tried to kidnap him. We're going to analyze it second by second to see what he could have done better. Then this afternoon each of you will go through the scenario again, using what you've learned."

And they did. The morning was spent analyzing Frank's attack and Harry's defense. Then in the afternoon one by one they were put into a light sleeping state and Frank tried to kidnap each of them again, even Harry.

The room that they were in was a training room, and so had spells put on it that made it so the room could become anything Sgt. G needed. It was essentially the room of requirement, but it could be changed from the inside and it wasn't hidden. Sgt. G made the training room into each of the bedroom's where he had found them in turn, and tested them in those environments while the other's watched.

All five woke up this time around. However, Seamus was stunned while still in bed because when he woke up he sat straight up, presenting a perfect target for Frank. Dean was able to get out of the way of Frank's first _stupefying _blast, but he missed grabbing his wand as he moved away and was taken out by Frank's second one. Angelina and Ernie both got out of the way and got their wands. Angelina was able to get a spell off, although she missed by about 3 feet. Ernie grazed Sgt. G with a stunning spell, knocking him down again, but forgot to disarm him, and when Ernie was standing over him Sgt. G was able to fling Ernie across the room with a stunning spell directly to the chest. He was out cold for the next hour. Harry did the best by far. He was able to get out of the way, grab his wand and _Stupify _Sgt. G. Although Sgt. G was up and critiquing again in five minutes.

"Harry, you should have bound me," Sgt. G said when he woke up. He woke Ernie up at that point. Ernie had been the first to go, and had been left _stupefied _until everybody else had finished. "Alright every one, gather around. From now on this room is always to be treated like a combat scenario, if during a training session you knock somebody out, they are to be bound, if you capture somebody, they are to be bound. Tonight I want you to read the Auror field manual and combat rules, they are to be followed to a tee in this training room. I don't care if you think it will hurt somebody, the only two things you aren't allowed to do in here is use lethal force, and not follow the hand book."

"What about situations where the hand book says lethal force is supposed to be used?" asked Ernie.

"Rule number one trumps rule number two," said Sgt. G. "I don't want any of you getting killed. Either out there or in here. The Auror department has lost too many of it's members to complacency over the years. Now, all of you go home and get some rest, I'll see you tomorrow at 5 AM. Except you Harry, I want to talk to you for a minute."

"Yes, Sir?" Harry said after the others were gone.

"They're a great group," said Sgt. G.

"Yes, Sir, they are," Harry said, proud that all of the new Aurors were former members of the DA

"You taught them well." Frank said, a small smile on his face again. "Usually I have to redo this sleep attack drill for almost a month before all my trainees get out of the way. We're going to run that scenario again tomorrow, and I think they'll all be able to at least get a spell off." Frank looked up at Harry, a wildly impressed look in his eye. "And _that_ usually takes almost 6 months. Being able to hit me is another story. That'll come with target practice, and that takes time."

"Thank you sir," Harry said, slightly confused as to why Sgt. G was telling him all of this.

"Harry, you're the group leader, both in ability, brains and socially." Frank said, leading Harry to the door. "I want you to get used to that. There will be time when you're gong to be excluded from some stuff because you're going to be seen as an authority figure. You need to get used to that also. From what Kingsley tells me you're going to be heading up the search for the rest of the Death Eaters when you're done here, and right now, that task force is only three strong. You and one of your class mates will be assigned to it." Frank opened the door for Harry, "Now go, do your reading and get some rest."

"Yes Sir," Harry said, a bit less enthusiastically than normal. Frank's talk of being seen as an authority figure had come out of nowhere. And to tell the truth, it kind of scared Harry a bit.

Harry walked out of the training room and took the elevator to the lobby of the Ministry. Looking at the watch the Weasleys had given him for his 17th birthday Harry realized that it was already 11 o'clock. He apparated outside the grounds of the Burrow and walked the rest of the way to the back door.

* * *

Ginny woke up from a very nice dream to a sudden bang on one of the upper floors. In only a few seconds she had grabbed her wand and was out of bed and through the door, Hermione only a step behind her.

On their way up to Ron's room the girls met with Mr. Weasley, Charley and George, all of whom had wands out and were running in the same direction.

As the five of them got to Ron's door George shot a spell at it, throwing the door open violently. The lights were on and Ginny could see Harry and Ron, both with their wands out. Neither had them up or pointed at the third man in the room, who was getting up off the floor, and whom Ginny didn't recognize.

Although it seemed her father did, "Frank, What are you doing here?" He asked when he saw the third man in the room.

"I'm here to take Harry to his Auror training. I was supposed to kidnap him in his sleep to freak him out, but he disarmed me before I could grab him. He's good, I'll give him that." The third man was looking at Harry with a look that somehow managed to combine pride, hope, and respect all into one.

"That he is," said Mr. Weasley, smiling a bit. "Harry this is Sgt. Frank Greenman, he's an Auror trainer, you can give him his wand back."

"Sorry about that sir," said Harry, giving Frank his wand back.

Frank bent down and picked up a black bowler hat and put it on, "No problem," he said, "I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I've been training Aurors for almost ten years now, and you're one of only ten that have woken up before I grabbed 'em, one of five who got out of the way after waking up, and the only one so far who was able to hit me with a spell. Two of the others who got out of the way got spells off, but they had to speak them and they missed. Tonks was one of the ones who got a spell off by the way, although I'm still not quite sure if it was intentional. She had just tripped over a trashcan and the spell shot into the ceiling.

Harry smiled and Ginny couldn't help but smile also as she remembered the woman who had been one of her greatest friends and who was now dead. Tonks had been the only person she had ever felt comfortable talking too about her feelings for Harry. She had been the one that Ginny turned to when she started having dirty dreams about Harry. Tonks had always been helpful and understanding. She had been the big sister that Ginny didn't have.

"Thank you sir, that's high praise indeed. And thanks for the advice." Harry said.

"Advise?" asked Mr. Weasley, obviously confused, as was Ginny, who hadn't heard a bit of advice given.

"Not to put his wand in his back pocket," said Frank, "Kingsley told me to tell Harry that if he woke up and I missed stunning him."

Now Ginny was really confused, she'd never heard that before, and didn't know why anyone would put their wand in their back pocket.

"When Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, Lupin, and the others came to get me before fifth year Moody told me not to put my wand in my back pocket. So only about 10 people in the world know about that and Kingsley is one of them."

"Never explain an identifier," Frank said, "that's your first lesson. Now get dressed. I usually get to bring in recruits in their sleeping cloths, which is either humiliating for them or disturbing for me." When a few people gave him a questioning look he sighed, "You'd be surprised just how many of the recruits I have to get sleep naked."

Ginny just shivered at the thought of walking in on somebody naked. _Although, _she thought, _I wouldn't mind if I walked in on Harry naked. _And with that thought came the memory from the day before in the lake. Along with that memory came all the confused feelings she had had during that little adventure.

"I'll stay uninformed if you don't mind," Harry said, pulling his cloths out.

"And I'll go back to sleep," said Ron, putting his wand down and laying back in bed.

Everybody else mumbled agreement as they started back towards their rooms. Ginny and Hermione walked quietly back to the room they shared.

Ginny was awake now, she wouldn't be getting back to sleep. And the confused feelings about what she wanted to do to Harry were back. She loved him and he loved her; that much she was sure of. What she wasn't sure of was what she wanted to happen between the two of them this early in their budding relationship. This was exactly the type of thing she would have gone to Tonks for. But now Tonks was dead.

Ginny and Hermione got back to their room and closed the door.

"That's one way to wake up," said Ginny

"Yep" said Hermione, an unusual smile on her face. It wasn't often that Ginny, or anybody for that matter, saw this smile but Ginny recognize it as Hermione's defense mechanism for when she was truly scared.

"You Ok Hermione?" asked Ginny, a bit worried for her friend.

"Yep," said Hermione. Ginny knew that her friend would never let Harry, the Weasleys or anybody else know it, but an attack on Harry or anybody that Hermione loved was her biggest fear. It was the reason that she had sent her parents to Australia with false identities and wiped memories.

"You sure?" asked Ginny. "You know I'm here to talk if you need it."

Hermione's smile became one of genuine friendship, "Yeah Ginny, I think I'm good, but thanks." Hermione turned to go back to bed and then turned back, "And you know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here too right?"

Ginny smiled, pleased, "Yeah, I do, thanks."

Ginny lay there for the next few hours, thinking about Harry, and what had almost happened the day before. She'd liked it, she'd liked it a lot and the only thing that had stopped her from letting Harry continue was the fact that it had hurt. That pain had brought her back from the world of pleasure she had been in from the moment that Harry had stuck his fingers inside her. She had really liked that feeling; she had felt really close to Harry at that moment.

When Hermione woke up again Ginny was ready to spill her feelings to Hermione.

"Morning Ginny," Hermione yawned as she got up.

Ginny had thought through this for the last hour. _Hermione, can we talk? _ She would ask. And then Hermione would say _Sure Ginny, what is it? _ And Ginny would tell Hermione all about yesterday and they would talk for hours about it and at the end she would feel so much better. But all that came out of her mouth was "Morning Hermione."

Hermione got up and went to shower. Ginny on the other hand needed to think some more apparently, and that meant she was going to go flying. She'd shower after that.

Instead Ginny went down to breakfast. She ate silently and slowly. She had been the first one to come down stairs after her mother and by the time everyone else had come down she was only half way through breakfast.

"Is everything ok Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. I never got back to sleep after the Harry incident this morning. Ginny ate the rest of her breakfast in silence, although she kept noticing Hermione glancing at her worriedly.

Ginny finished her breakfast and went up stairs to change into her Quidditch cloths. Then she went outside and got her Firebolt from the broom shed. Despite the fact that she had spent a countless hours on this broom since she had gotten it she still got a thrill every time she kicked off and felt the broom accelerate under her.

To her flying was the perfect way to think. She could concentrate on her thoughts, nobody to interrupt her and what seemed like no limit to herself. It was on a broom that she belonged.

Ginny spent the next few hours flying, she released the old snitch that her family had, and flew after it for a while. Then she practiced taking shots with the old, slightly deflated Quaffle.

By the time lunch came around Ginny had thought through a lot, although she still wanted to talk to Hermione.

Ginny landed and just as she was getting inside her mother announced lunch to the rest of the house. Again Ginny ate in silence, Harry and the previous day's events on her mind, and again Ginny felt Hermione looking at her. Hermione would ask if something was wrong, and Ginny would say no, that she was just thinking.

Ginny repeated this routine for the next few days, she would get up, eat, then go fly until lunch. Then she would go upstairs and take a shower.

For the whole week Harry had been getting up before the crack of dawn to go to training, and had been getting home very late every evening, at almost 11' o'clock, by which time everybody else had gone to bed. Ginny always waited up for him though.

Harry was always tired when he got home, he would walk in, say good night to Ginny with a fairly passionate kiss, and then go upstairs to shower and go right to bed. The only thing about his training that he had told her, or any one for that matter was that on Friday he would be getting off early and would be home at eight o'clock.

Neither Ginny nor Harry brought up what had happened in the pond on Sunday, and both seemed perfectly content with that. Ginny was looking forward to spending the weekend with him though.

On Friday, Ginny finished lunch and took her normal shower. But this time when she got out Hermione was sitting in the room the two of them shared, reading.

"Hey Hermione," Ginny said, going to her closet to start pulling out cloths.

"Ginny, is there something wrong?" asked Hermione with out permeable.

"No, what makes you say that?" Ginny asked. She had tried to sound casual, and to most people she would have, but Hermione knew her too well.

"Really Ginny, I can tell something is wrong, what is it?" asked Hermione, putting her book down.

Ginny sighed, now was as good a time as any she guessed. "It's Harry," said Ginny. She took her towel off and pulled her cloths on.

"What's wrong?" asked Hermione, looking greatly concerned.

"Nothing's wrong," Ginny said happily, a smile spreading across her face. "Everything is great in fact…It's just that last Sunday…" Ginny trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"Last Sunday what," persisted Hermione, "come on Ginny, you can tell me."

"Yeah, sorry, this is something I would have talked to Tonks about, but…well I cant do that now," Ginny said, a sad look shadowing the smile on her face.

"I'm sorry Ginny, but you know you can talk to me about anything," Hermione said, crossing the room to Ginny and putting her hands on her best friend's shoulders.

"Well Sunday I dragged Harry away from his reading and we went out to the pond and swam." Ginny's smile grew more, and she went over to her bed and sat down. "I wore the bikini that you told me to buy."

"How did Harry like it?" asked Hermione playfully

"He liked it, a lot," said Ginny, "A whole lot. He got a…you know,"

"What?" asked Hermione teasing Ginny

"A boner," Ginny said.

Hermione couldn't help but giggle.

"Don't laugh, I look good in that bikini," said Ginny the tension that she had been feeling draining away and her normal, defensive, self poking through.

"Yes you do Ginny, and don't let anybody ever tell you differently," said Hermione, still teasing Ginny a bit.

"Any way," Ginny said forcefully, "Harry liked the bikini a lot and we got to kissing and I noticed.

Oh, I don't know why I did this, but I reached down and grabbed it, and then he…well he took off my bikini bottoms and stuck his fingers inside my pussy and fingered me to a great orgasm."

"Wow," said Hermione, truly surprised, "Did you guys…you know, go any farther."

"Well we started to," said Ginny, blushing a bit, "but when he stuck himself inside me it started to hurt a bit and I asked him to stop."

"Ginny that's normal," said Hermione, reassuring her friend, "or at least that's what all the books say is normal."

"Wait, you and Ron haven't…?"

"Nope," Hermione said, suddenly very interested in her hands on her lap.

"But you guys were traveling together for eight months, and by the time the battle was over you wouldn't let him out of your sight." Ginny said, slightly pleased to get the discussion off of her and Harry for the moment. "I saw the way you looked at him then, it's the same way I look at Harry. It was lust."

"Yeah, but…well I didn't kiss him for the first time until the middle of the battle," Hermione admitted, "And since then we've been taking it slow, at my insistence. I don't want to get hurt, and I don't really want to hurt him. But enough about me and Ron, back to what happened yesterday with you and Harry."

"Fine," said Ginny reluctantly, "but you're not getting out of it that easily, we'll come back to you and Ron later." Ginny just smiled at Hermione's sarcastic moan. "Any way, he stopped after I asked him too, then I told him I could help him with his 'problem' and we ground against each other for a little while until we both came."

"So what's the problem?" asked Hermione

"I want him," said Ginny, "but I'm afraid that if we have sex we'll…well I don't know exactly what I'm afraid of, but I'm afraid, and a bit nervious also. I mean what if I do something wrong, or he doesn't like it, or there's something wrong with me, or…."

Hermione smiled and shook her friend. When Ginny stopped Hermione hugged her friend sympathetically. "Ginny, do you love him?" she asked

"Yes," said Ginny, her face lighting up, "I love him with all my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with him and I don't care who knows it."

Hermione laughed at her friend, "Yeah, sounds familiar. Does he love you?"

Ginny blushed, "Yeah, he says he does at least."

"He does," said Hermione, "believe me. During our sixth year he couldn't stop watching you during Quidditch practice. And during our eight-month excursion he kept worrying about you. There were a few times when he said that you were the only thing keeping him going. And if that's not enough, I've seen the way he looks at you. Harry would do anything for you Ginny."

"Yeah, he would wouldn't he," said Ginny, her smile seeming to get even bigger some how.

"Don't worry Ginny, he won't run away again," said Hermione, "he was trying to protect you last time. But I'll tell you what, if he does run, I'll find him and make sure that he won't be able to hurt anybody ever again, alright?"

Ginny chuckled, "You know, that sounds good. And I'll do the same to Ron if he ever hurts you."

Hermione laughed, "Did you know your dad talked to the two of them a few days after Fred's funeral. He told them that if they hurt us he and the rest of the Weasley boys would hunt them down and hang them by their balls."

"Wow, I'm surprised that's all Dad would do if Harry hurt me." Said Ginny.

Hermione hugged her friend again. "I'll tell you what Ginny. Why don't you, me, Harry and Ron have a romantic night tonight? Almost everyone will be out of the house tonight."

Ginny gave her a questioning look.

"Your parents are going to some dinner at the ministry, George and Percy both said they're going to move back into their flats today and Charley has a girl somewhere and he's staying with her tonight." Hermione smiled playfully. "You and I can make a romantic dinner and stuff, then I can distract Ron and you and Harry can come up here, and you can do what every you want to him."

Ginny's eyes seemed to see into the future as she bit her lip and moaned. "Oh god, I'd love to just get him on the bed and…"

"I don't want to know," interrupted Hermione.

The two teenage girls talked about that night for a while, planning what they'd do for dinner and then about what they'd wear. Ginny picked out a little dark blue dress that contrasted with her hair and skin nicely and hugged her every curve. Hermione picked out something a bit more conservative, but still form fitting. It was dark red, almost the color of blood.

By the time the girls were done planning and talking it was almost 6 o'clock. They knew that Ron was getting home at seven and Harry at eight. They went down stairs and explained their plan to Mrs. Weasley, at least the part about dinner.

Mrs. Weasley readily agreed and while she was helping them get all the ingredients and supplies they would need together she started talking about being young and in love and other stuff the girls just pretended to listen to.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were out the door at seven, just as Ron was getting home. He went upstairs and showered, and in the ten minutes he was in the shower Percy and Charley left. By the time he got down stairs the kitchen had a great aroma.

Hermione and Ginny told him of their plans for dinner, leaving out the part about Ginny and Harry going off to screw while Ron and Hermione made out.

"Any way," Hermione said as she finished explaining the plan, "Once Harry gets home we'll go up and change and then we'll eat, it'll be nice."

"Sounds great," said Ron, "and it smells even better."

They continued cooking, and about half an hour later Harry opened the door and walked in on Ginny, Hermione and Ron talking around an already set table with hot food sitting on it.

"Hey Harry," Ginny said excitedly, getting up and crossing the room to him in two quick strides.

Harry grabbed Ginny in a hug when she got to him and leaned down and kissed her.

"Get a room you two," Ron said sarcastically.

Harry and Ginny broke their kiss and smiled to each other. There was nothing either of them would like more than to 'get a room', but they both knew that it wasn't possible, at least not right at that moment.

"Wow guys," said Harry, looking at the table.

"Yep, our ladies went all out for us," said Ron, smiling and giving Hermione a small peck on the cheek. "And apparently there's one more part of the surprise."

"Yep," said Ginny as she and Hermione started towards the stairs, "Hermione and I will be back in a few moments." And with that the two girls were gone.

"So how has you're week been?" asked Harry, sitting down at the table. "Spent on my feet," said Ron, "The shop gets busier ever day, we've got two employees working for us and I'm still busy all day. I'm not complaining though, the money is great and it's great to spend time with George. What about you."

"It was good," said Harry, "You'll never believe who the other recruits…" Harry trailed off in mid sentence as Ginny and Hermione came down the stairs.

Ron followed Harry's gaze to the stairs and couldn't help but be amazed.

"Wow," said Harry, "you both look absolutely amazing."

"Yeah," said Ron, finally closing his mouth, "amazing defiantly describes it. Hermione you clean up really well."

"Don't sound so surprised," said Hermione jokingly leaning over and kissing her boyfriend.

"Ginny…I just…I mean…Um…wow," Harry stammered.

"You already said that," said Ginny, sitting down, "But thank you." She leaned over and kissed Harry on the cheek.

The four sat and ate the great food that the girls had prepared. They talked about Harry's week, since Ron had already told all of them about his, at least for the most part.

Only a few minutes after they started eating the four friends saw a dull flash of light from the window and heard the distant rumble of thunder and the soft drumming of rain starting to fall.

Ginny smiled, "I love thunderstorms," she said, "they're always so…refreshing."

"What do you mean?" asked Ron.

"I don't know, after they're done you go outside and the air smells fresh and everything looks brighter. And if the storm is at night than the lightning is always so beautiful." Said Ginny

"You're an odd one Ginny," said Ron shaking his head.

"No, I know what she means," said Hermione, "Thunderstorms have a kind of raw power to them that just…well it's amazing to watch."

"Actually, they kind of turn me on," Ginny mumbled.

"Wait, what?" Asked Ron and Harry together, looking at their girlfriends like they had sprouted wings.

"So how was Auror training?" Hermione asked, quickly changing the subject.

Harry laughed and then told them about his week. He told them about how Sgt. G had already kidnapped all the other trainees before he came for Harry. Harry told them about the four DA members who were also Auror trainees. He told them about how Sgt. G had them analyze Harry's defense and how they then ran the kidnapping scenario again. He told them about how the rest of the week had been spent on stealth and tracking training. And about how Sgt. G was really impressed with everyone's quick progress. Harry told them about the different scenarios that the five of them had been put through and about each time they did something Frank would tell them that they had done it in record time.

"Sgt. G told us yesterday that at first he wasn't sure how this three months of training would work out because it's so much shorter than normal. But he said that now he's positive that we'll all be ready at the end of the three months."

"That's great," Ginny said

Then Harry told them about how Sgt. G had pulled him aside on Monday and given him the warning about being an authority figure.

"Well that was ominous," said Ginny when Harry had finished telling his story. Oddly enough thunder had crashed just as he finished.

"Yeah, I know," said Harry, "I'm not going to worry about it now. Ernie, Dean, Seamus and Alicia were all in the DA and I know all of them well enough to trust them and know that they see me as a leader. I don't see a problem with any of them."

"I don't think Sgt. G was talking about them," said Ron, "I think he was talking about the other Aurors. He told you that when you were done with training you'd be heading up the Death Eater search, which means you'll have gotten a promotion above other Aurors, probably some that have been there for quite a few years too."

"Oh," said Harry, realizing for the first time exactly what that would mean.

"Not only that," said Hermione, "I'm sure there are plenty of people in the Auror department who will resent the five of you because you only had to go through a 12th of the training they did. That and the fact that I'm sure some of them will see it as Kingsley playing favorites."

"But he's not," said Harry, "you Ron and I have been through more stealth and tracking than most of them went through in their first five years of work. We spent 8 months on the run from Voldemort. If I'm not qualified to hunt down the rest of his followers than nobody is."

"I know Harry," said Hermione, "but sometimes people think seniority is the same thing as experience and they'll be resentful no matter how good you are. I think Sgt. G was trying to tell you that you're going to have to earn the respect of the rest of the Aurors. You're not just going to get instant admiration because you defeated Voldemort. Some of the Aurors had a big part in helping with that, and others have taken down some pretty bad wizards. Harry you're finally among peers and you can't expect to just cruse along anymore. That is what Sgt. G was trying to say."

"I'm not expecting to cruse along." Said Harry

"You heard what Sgt. G said on Monday," said Ginny, "you're the only person to ever have disarmed him and one of, what, only three to have shot a spell off?!"

"Yeah," said Harry, "but all of that came from the eight months of paranoia while we were running, it was survival instinct. I had to sacrifice for that, and I'm still not sure if I'm proud of the fact that I have that skill."

"Harry, just survive for me," Ginny said.

"Alright," said Harry, "I'll survive." Turning back to Ron and Hermione he said, "And I know that I'm going to have to work to stay at the top. I may be a powerful wizard, and I may have been the one to defeat Voldemort, but that took me seven years. I'm going to have to work to become better, stronger, faster, and smarter. And I'm going to do it to make sure that everyone I love will never have to fight for their lives again."

"Lets move on to something a bit happier, and maybe into the living room," said Ginny.

"Yes, please," said Harry, the red that had colored his face draining away as he calmed down a bit. He and Ron waved their wands and everything started to clean itself up.

Meanwhile the four teens moved into the living room and sat talking and watching the approaching storm for the next hour.

The four talked about anything else they could think of, from how the Ministry was recovering, to business at WWW, to the Muggle world and everything in-between.

"I want to go to a Movie," announced Ginny when Hermione and Harry had finished explaining them, "They sound…odd."

"I guess if you didn't grow up with them they would," said Harry.

Suddenly there was a massive flash of light that lit up the whole sky, accompanied by a huge crack of thunder that shook the house. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione watched as a lightning bolt seemed to jump down from the sky and strike a tree on the hill on the edge of the Weasley's property.

"Impressive," said Ron after it had happened.

"Yeah," said Ginny, squirming a bit. She hadn't been able to sit still for the last 40 minutes.

Suddenly Hermione stood up and pulled Ron up with her. "Come on Ron, let's go up to your room."

Ron just smiled a bit, "fine with me," he said, quickly following Hermione as she walked seductively up the stairs.

Ginny waited a minute until she heard Ron's door close and then she turned to Harry. "So, what do you think, aren't thunderstorms beautiful?"

"Yes," said Harry, pushing a lock of red hair out of Ginny's face tenderly.

Ginny leaned closer to Harry as another crash of thunder sounded from the other side of the house. "That thing with the tree was amazing. I never thought I'd see something like that."

"No, it's a once in a life time occurrence," said Harry, leaning closer to Ginny.

"The raw power, it just gets me so…"and with that Ginny leaned the rest of the way in and started to kiss Harry passionately. Soon she was on top of him, straddling his hips and kissing him.

_A/N: So, to all of you who have waited for the last 6 months, I'm sorry it took so long to update. I've been really really busy with school and still am, however after a few of you sent me messages asking when I would next update I figured it was time that I put something up. I have been working, bit by bit, on the third chapter of this story, as well as a few other stories for the last few months. I hadn't gotten any of them finished but when I got the messages asking about updates I decided to cut the third chapter in half and post the first half now and finish the second half in the next few weeks. Things should be slowing down a bit in the next month or so, hopefully by May I'll be able to post a few more chapters and maybe even some one-shots. However I can tell you right now that there is almost no way that I'll have the time or energy to write enough to update weekly like I used to. I will try to update at least once a month though so don't fret, Unless I stop writing all together I won't go six months with out an update again. As always, I hope you guys liked it and please write a review. And as I always have I'll sign off with a "May the Force Be With you"_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: So here is chapter four, within a week as I promised._

Chapter 4: Their First Time

As the two teens broke apart for air Ginny said, "I'm ready Harry, tonight was for us. The dinner, the empty house, Hermione taking Ron upstairs, it was all so we could be alone."

"Your parents went out so we could…?" asked Harry, trailing off at the end because he didn't know exactly how to put it.

"No," said Ginny, taking his lips in hers again. Breaking apart once more she continued, "that part was just opportunity. But the dinner, and Hermione distracting Ron, that was for us."

Harry just smiled slyly. "Well then, let's not waist this opportunity." Harry slid his hands to Ginny's supple ass and gave it a good squeeze, causing Ginny to attack his mouth with hers again.

The two kept to kissing for a few minutes, then one of Harry's hands found the zipper pull at the back of Ginny's dress. He started to tug at it but Ginny broke the kiss and smiled. "Come on, lets take this to my room," Ginny said, standing up and leading Harry upstairs.

Ginny opened the door to her room and beckoned Harry inside by getting on her bed and posing seductively. "Come on in Harry, I'm all yours."

Harry smiled, growled a bit and then went over to her. He lay down next to her and kissed her passionately. One of his hands found its way to her thigh and started to move up it slowly, pushing the dark blue dress up. Soon his hand was on her hip, and he realized that she wasn't wearing panties. "Ginny, where are...?"

"I knew how this night was going to go, I didn't wear them." Ginny said, sitting up.

Harry just licked his lips. He'd been having dreams like this for the last year. In fact the attempted kidnapping this morning had woken him from one such dream. Harry let his hand slide up even more, exposing Ginny's bare ass as the dress slid up to her waist. Then his hand went to the zipper pull that he had found earlier and slowly slid it down.

At this point Ginny reached down and undid Harry's belt and zipper, releasing some of the pressure on his hardening dick.

This time it was Harry who attacked Ginny's mouth. The two kissed passionately as Harry's hands moved the dress off Ginny's shoulders, reveling the lacy red bra underneath. Harry's mouth moved slowly to Ginny's neck and was soon eliciting moans from Ginny as he sucked at her pulse point.

Meanwhile Ginny's hands were busy also, slowly working Harry's pants and boxers off of him. Soon, with a little help from Harry, Ginny had gotten his pants all the way off, leaving his almost fully erect cock free. Ginny wrapped her soft hands around Harry's swelling member and slowly rubbed up and down on it until it was rock hard and fully erect.

Harry stopped kissing Ginny's neck and pulled her dress over her head, revealing her naked pussy and red, lacy bra.

Ginny also took this opportunity to pull Harry's shirt over his head, leaving him fully naked. Ginny looked him over quickly and felt her heart jump at his masculine beauty. He had well toned muscles that had been honed during his six years of Quidditch.

Before Ginny could take the time to really admire his body Harry's lips were on hers again and she felt his hands between the two of them, fiddling with the bra's clasp.

Harry had found the clasp in the front of Ginny's bra easily enough, but getting it undone was another story. He messed with it for 30 seconds while he was kissing Ginny, and when he hadn't figured it out by then he broke off the kiss so he could see what he was doing. After another 20 seconds Ginny finally took pity on him and reached up and moved his hand away softly, and then, with only one hand and relative ease, she undid the bra clasp, releasing her 36C breasts. She shrugged out of the bra and tossed it across the room, paying no attention to where it landed. She was completely distracted by Harry's gaze, which seemed to be looking at every inch of her at once and simultaneously studying each tiny detail of her body with singular attention.

Harry smiled and shook his head, drinking in the sight of Ginny's pale skin and flat stomach lying there, bare. Harry just sat there, amazed that Ginny, the girl in his dreams for nearly two years, was sitting naked in front of him.

"Well, what do you think?" asked Ginny, the seductiveness in her voice colored only a little by self-consciousness.

Harry knew what was supposed to happen from here, he had heard the guys in the dorm talking, but he didn't have any first hand experience. He was nervous, and from the look on her face, so was Ginny. So Harry decided to do what ever came to him. "Wow," he said, "You look absolutely amazing."

Harry smiled as Ginny's pale skin took on a slightly rosy hue as she blushed. "Thank you" she said.

Harry reached up with his right hand and cupped Ginny's cheek. As Harry leaned in to kiss her he reached his left hand up and started to massage her bare breast, feeling the stiff nipple in his palm.

Ginny moaned as Harry kissed her, giving his tongue a path into her mouth. Ginny felt Harry's tongue exploring every crevice of her mouth as her tongue did the same with his. Ginny felt blood rush to every part of her body as an intense feeling of passion washed through her. She also felt a spot between her legs start to get wet as Harry's kisses moved from her mouth to her neck.

The two teens moved closer together, Ginny's firm breasts pressing up against Harry's strong chest as his hands moved to her waist, his strong arms wrapping around her protectively. He could feel her silky smooth skin under his hands; it was a feeling he knew he'd never forget.

They stayed like this for the next few minutes, kissing passionately. Then Harry slowly leaned into the kiss and Ginny slowly leaned back until they were lying on the bed, still locked in a passionate embrace.

Ginny could feel Harry's hard dick pressing against her thigh and she felt another wave of pleasure go through her as a small ball of fire started to grow in her stomach.

Harry started to trace kisses down Ginny's body, tracing from her neck to her collarbone, then down to her breasts. The ball of heat grew a bit more.

Harry's lips found Ginny's left nipple and suddenly she was moaning as he sucked the soft pink mound into his mouth. Harry sucked on it for a few moments and then moved across her chest to the other one.

Ginny could feel her wetness starting to run down her thighs. She had fingered herself to imagined scenes like this one for a while now, but the feeling of it really happening was beyond her wildest dreams. Ginny reached down and started running her hands through Harry's messy black hair as Harry started tracing kisses down her stomach, the closer he got to her slit the hotter the ball of fire in her stomach seemed to get.

Then he was there, with his hands he pushed Ginny's legs apart and kissed her clit quickly and then moved past it to her thigh. He concentrated on Ginny's thigh, slowly trailing his kisses, alternatively kissing and licking, from the knee up to the apex of her thighs. He did the same thing on her other leg. While he did this Ginny closed her eyes squirmed as Harry teased her, feeling Harry's rough hands and warm breath against her legs. She didn't know why Harry was stalling, but for some reason it made her want it more.

During Harry's ministrations, Ginny had moved her hand down to rub against her clit. Harry took Ginny's wrist and pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. "I'll take care of you," he said huskily, his hot breath blowing across her naked slit, causing her to shutter in anticipation.

Harry smiled and leaned in towards Ginny's folds. He could see them glistening, already covered in her sweat smelling juices. Then all of a sudden his mouth was on her bare slit, his tongue lapping up the juices that already coated the inside of her thighs before he moved his mouth up to her waiting pussy.

Harry slowly licked her soft, puffy folds and then traced his tongue around Ginny's clit and slid first one, then two fingers inside her waiting cunt. Ginny raised her hips off the bed, causing Harry's fingers to go deeper inside her. Harry started to pump the two fingers in and out of her pussy, slowly at first but getting faster, as he sucked on her hard little clit. She moaned excitedly as the ball of fire in her stomach started to expand in rhythm with his finger thrusts.

Her breath was shuttering now as she neared orgasm; but suddenly Harry's fingers stopped pumping and he stopped sucking her clit.

She whimpered at this ""Harry! Please, I'm so close." Ginny's voice trembled as she pleaded with him to bring her to orgasm.

Harry just smiled as he pulled his fingers out of her and licked them clean. "Be patient my love," he said.

Harry slid his hands to the back of Ginny's thighs and up to her ass. He moved his mouth down to Ginny's opening and slid his tongue inside her sweet tasting slit and started moving it in and out.

Ginny could still feel Harry's rough hands massaging her ass. Then Harry traced his tongue along Ginny's folds, up to her clit and then back inside her. He kept going like this for the next few minutes, and Ginny could feel her orgasm building in the pit of her stomach. The ball of fire felt like it was about to explode.

Suddenly Harry started sucking on her clit again and, removing one of the hands from her ass, shoved two fingers inside her pussy again and started to quickly pump them in and out. That sent Ginny over the edge. She felt her climax explode inside her as wave after wave of pleasure pulsed through her body. She tightened her thighs around Harry's head, arched her back off the bed and came hard with a loud incoherent scream of ecstasy. She could feel Harry's tongue working as he tried to lap up all the juices that were flowing from her young pussy.

When she had finally stopped spasming Harry grinned against Ginny, gave her one last quick lick and moved up to capture her mouth. Ginny licked her own juices off Harry's chin and lips. "Oh, wow. That was.... amazing." She sighed breathlessly against Harry's mouth.

"That was only the beginning," Harry growled in her ear.

Ginny was once again quite aware of Harry's hard on pressing up against her pussy. She gulped, realizing exactly what was going to happen next. She had known this was coming from the moment she and Hermione had started to make the plans for tonight, but until now it had seemed like something far away. Ginny quickly waved her hand over her stomach, performing the only bit of silent, wand-less magic that she knew, a contraceptive charm that Hermione had taught her before fifth year.

Harry seemed to sense her worry as he started to kiss her. He slowly ran his hand down her left side, stopping at her breast to massage it a bit. This seemed to relax Ginny a little, and after a few more moments Harry released Ginny's breast and slid his hand down between her legs. Harry found Ginny's opening and slowly guided his dick to it. He rested his throbbing head against Ginny's swollen slit, breaking off the kiss for a moment. "Gin, are you sure you want this?" he asked, "Because if we start this, I'm not going to be able to stop." _What am I doing, she's letting me do what ever I want to her and now I'm giving her the chance to back down before we get to the best part. _Harry thought.

"Yeah, I'm sure" Ginny said, telling the truth, the fact that Harry had asked just then had confirmed it, "just go slow."

"Alright," Harry said, a bit hesitant himself. Harry pushed against the wetness that his dick was resting on and after a bit of pressure felt himself enter Ginny for the first time. He heard Ginny gasp a bit as he slid deeper into her, "are you alright?" he asked, reveling in the feeling of Ginny's tight pussy wrapped around his hard dick.

"Fine," she sort of gasped, closing her eyes.

"Does it hurt?" Harry asked, hearing the small amount of pain in her voice.

"Yes," said Ginny, her eyes opening, "but keep going."

"Ok," Harry said, pushing himself farther into Ginny. He felt the head of his dick press up against the back of Ginny's pussy. He paused for a second and then slowly pulled himself out. He finally slipped out of Ginny, causing her to gasp. He looked down at his dick, and saw red. He knew it was normal, but he was still concerned. "Are you sure your ok Ginny?" he asked, really hoping that she wanted him to continue.

Ginny smiled slyly and looked Harry right in the eyes. "Yes Harry, I'm fine, just keep going, slowly, I'll tell you if I want to stop."

Harry nodded and positioned himself at Ginny's entrance again. He pushed in again, going in a bit easier this time.

Ginny gasped again, but this time it sounded different, more pleasurable than pain, although not completely pleasure.

Harry pulled back again, this time not letting himself pull all the way out. Then he pushed in again, and out, and in again. He soon got into a slow rhythm, and started to kiss Ginny on the mouth.

After only a minute or so Ginny broke the kiss and said, "Harry…faster, please."

Harry immediately picked up the pace and soon was pushing himself into Ginny very quickly. He knew sex was supposed to feel good, but what he had heard others describe was nothing compared to what he was feeling. The feeling of Ginny's pussy wrapped around his dick was sensational. The sounds that Ginny was making when Harry thrust into her had moved from pained little grunts to pleasurable moans and soon Ginny's hips were moving in rhythm with his.

All too soon Harry's thrusts became erratic as he tried to keep him self from finishing. But it was too much; with one final thrust Harry knew that he couldn't keep it in any longer. He gave one last, hard thrust into Ginny's tight teen pussy and he exploded inside her, shooting his load into the back of her pussy as he sagged on top of her.

Harry's cumming had pushed Ginny over the edge and she suddenly felt her body convulsing as an orgasm pulsed through her body. Her chest heaved as pleasure filled her from the top of her head to the bottom of her toes.

For the few minutes after they both came down from their orgasms the two teens just lay there, their breathing in sync and their bodies having no desire to move. Finally Harry rolled off Ginny and lay next to her on his back.

"Ginny, that was…" Harry said, not really sure how to finish his sentence

"Yeah." Said Ginny

The two teens just lay there for a while; Ginny eventually rolled onto her side and rested her head against Harry's muscular chest. Harry put an arm around Ginny as she did this, enveloping her in a protective and loving hug.

Soon the two of them were asleep, thoughts of what the rest of the Weasleys would think if they found them in this position far from either of their minds. Not even Voldemort returning could have separated the two love struck teens at that moment.

_A/N: I know it was shorter than the other chapters, but I had to rush to finish it. It's going to be a while until I put up another chapter because I'm in the middle of a show and am really busy with school. Anyway, I hope you all liked it, please read and review and as always May the Force be With you._


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: So here is the next chapter, hope you all like it. As always JKR Owns these characters, the only thing that I own is the story that follows. The last time we saw our two lovebirds they were basking in the afterglow of their first time, lets see what happens next._

Chapter 5: The Afterglow

Harry woke up as sunlight hit his face, momentarily blinding him as he opened his eyes. _Wait, this isn't right, _thought Harry _Ron's room faces west. _As Harry slowly woke up he felt the warm body next to his in the bed, felt it wrapped in his arms and pressed up against his naked body. _Naked, why am I Naked? _

Harry looked down at the blur next to him and when his eyes finally adjusted to the light he saw the long red hair, the pale skin and the lovely face of Ginny Weasley, her head wresting on his chest, her bare body pressed up against his. Suddenly the previous night came rushing back to him and a smile spread over his face.

Ginny stirred at that moment as the sun washed over her, illuminating her pale skin. Her eyes fluttered as she took a deep breath and a little grin appeared on her face. "Hey you," she said softly, turning her head toward Harry's with a loving look in her eyes.

"Hey," said Harry, moving his arm from around shoulders and brushing some of her hair out of her face, "How'd you sleep?" he asked awkwardly. _That was stupid Harry, _he thought, _'how'd you sleep' isn't something you ask a girl you just had sex with…Merlin, I just had sex with Ginny…_

Ginny's smile got larger, "Great," she said putting her head back on Harry's chest, oddly comforted by his slow rhythmic breathing and the quick beat of his heart. She felt his hand snake around her shoulders again and settled into his arms.

"Ginny," Harry said slowly, his mind finally working up to full speed now that he was awake, "we had sex last night."

"Yes we did," Ginny, her tone mocking.

"Ginny…we had sex…in your room…at the Burrow…where your parents live…" Harry said slowly, fear creeping into his voice with each part of the sentence.

"Yep," said Ginny calmly. She understood what scared him, and she even knew that there was a chance that her mother could catch them in bed together at any moment. Molly Weasley was always up before dawn, cooking breakfast and getting stuff ready for the day. Ginny knew there was a danger of getting caught, but right now she just didn't care, she'd just had sex with Harry, the love of her life, and it had been good. Granted she had no other experiences to compare it to, but it had felt good nonetheless.

"Ginny what if you mom, or worse your dad, finds us?" asked Harry, suddenly a little panicky.

"Harry," said Ginny, looking up at her boyfriend again, "I don't really care right now. You and I just slept together for the first time; please lets enjoy that fact for a few moments longer. Or at the very least let _me_ enjoy that fact for a few moments longer."

Harry calmed down almost instantly, Ginny's smile was beautiful and it made her face absolutely radiant. Harry's smile blossomed all on its own as he nodded, "alright," he said, "I certainly enjoyed last night."

"Yeah," said Ginny, sitting up and repositioning herself so she could put her head on Harry's shoulder, "last night was great."

Harry let out a small laugh, running his hand up and down Ginny's arm as she snuggled closer to him. He put his head down on top of hers, letting the smell of her hair permeate his nostrils.

Suddenly there was a pop in the middle of Ginny's room. "Harry put some cloths on please," said Hermione who had just apparated into the room, facing away from Ginny's bed.

"Good morning to you too," said Ginny sarcastically to Hermione's back, "I slept fine thank you."

"Are you two still naked?" asked Hermione, not daring to turn around.

"How do you know we're naked?" asked Harry looking around for his cloths.

"Well the small pile of your cloths that I'm starring at is a pretty good indication," said Hermione taking a step to the side, revealing the pile of Harry and Ginny's cloths not two feet in front of where she had been standing.

"Oh," said Harry sheepishly. Silently he picked up his wand and summoned his and Ginny's undergarments to him. He put on his boxers and handed Ginny her bra and panties.

"Alright we're not naked any more," said Ginny as she clasped her bra.

"Thank you," said Hermione, turning around. "Harry you should get up stairs, Mrs. Weasley is going to be coming to wake us all up pretty soon."

"Why so early on a weekend?" asked Ginny, yawning and settling back into Harry's arms.

"Chores," said Hermione, "I overheard her talking to your father yesterday about how the chores around the house hadn't gotten done in so long. _"Maybe I'll wake Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny up early to do them tomorrow."_ Hermione said, doing a fair imitation of Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny giggled at Hermione's imitation and Harry couldn't help but smile either. "Well she was only talking about it," said Harry, "how do you know she's going to go through with it?"

Almost as if it were magic, which couldn't be discounted in the Burrow, there was a knock at the door. "Ginny, Hermione wake up," came Mrs. Weasley's slightly sing-song voice, "there's stuff that needs to be done, don't think you're going to spend the whole day sleeping."

Hermione just smiled at Harry and Ginny.

Harry quickly leapt out of Ginny's bed and gathered his things in his arms. He was just about to apparate away when there was another knock, harder this time. "Ginny, Hermione, wake up dears," Mrs. Weasley's voice had a bit of a commanding tone to it now.

"W're up" Hermione said loudly, feigning grogginess. She motioned Harry to go, "We'll be down in a few minutes."

Harry disapparated as Hermione was shouting, using the sound of her voice to cover the pop that accompanied all apparations. Harry appeared less than a second later upstairs in Ron's room. Harry looked around for Ron, not really wanting to tell Ron about what he had done to Ginny last night, but knowing that the conversation would have to happen eventually.

Harry saw Ron lying on his bed, his hands laced behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling, a very content smile on his face. "Hey Ron," said Harry quietly as he sat down on the cot that he usually slept on.

"Hey Harry," said Ron, a happy melody in his voice.

"I take it you had a good night," said Harry a laugh in the back of his throat.

Ron just smiled in return.

"I'll tell you what Ron," Harry said as he threw his cloths into a corner and pulled the blanket up around him, "I won't tell you about my night if you don't tell me about yours". By now Harry could hear Mrs. Weasley's footsteps coming up the stairs towards Ron's room.

"Deal," said Ron wistfully.

A few moments later Mrs. Weasley knocked. "Boys it's time to wake up," she said loudly.

"W'll be there in a min'it Mrs. Weasley" Harry grumbled, pretending to have just woken up.

"Alright, be sure that you are," said Mrs. Weasley.

As soon as Harry heard her footsteps retreating down the stairs he got off his cot and dug out a set of clean cloths. As he headed towards the shower he gave Ron's shoulder a nudge, "Get out of the trance mate, if we're not downstairs soon we'll be the ones stuck degnoming the garden."

* * *

About 20 minutes later Harry, followed closely by Ron came down the stairs. "Good morning" he said, sitting down next to Ginny and pulling the plate of scrambled eggs towards him.

"Morning Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, "How did you sleep dears?"

"Very well," Harry said, bringing a guilty smile to Ginny's face.

"How has training been going Harry," asked Hermione, quickly changing the subject.

"Great," said Harry, "we start up again on Monday."

"That's surprising," said Mrs. Weasley, "From what Mad Eye used to tell me it was an extra three years of essentially non-stop training, I thought you only got off for the Christmas Holidays every year."

"Well because so many Aurors were killed during the war the department is trying to put a few of us through an accelerated training program. Ernie, Seamus, Dean, Alicia and I are apparently moving at a really fast pace so Sgt. Greenman is giving us every other weekend off. He said he'd give us this weekend off as our first weekend so we could rest after our first week."

"That sound, stressful," said Ron.

"Well that's why you're not in Auror training," said Hermione.

"Yep," said Ron, pulling a platter of sausage towards him and pilling his plate high with them.

The teens ate breakfast and talked about their plans for the weekend. As the meal was winding down Mrs. Weasley still hadn't mentioned chores and Harry thought that maybe she had changed her mind about having the four do them.

Then just as Ron finally put his fork down, signaling that he was finally finished eating, Mrs. Weasley turned around and said, "Since you guys don't seem to have anything to do today I have some stuff that needs to get done around the house. It isn't much, I have a list." Mrs. Weasley pulled a scroll of parchment from her robe pocket and unfurled it with a flick of her wrist. It unrolled all the way to the floor and then bounced a little bit as it hit the floor and unrolled another two feet. "I'll just leave it here," Mrs. Weasley said, tacking the unrolled scroll to the wall. "Cross things off as they get done. Have fun," Mrs. Weasley just smiled a little bit as she walked off towards the living room.

"Well we might as well get started," said Hermione, standing up and going over to look at the five-foot long list. "Well it's not as bad as it looked originally, the writing is big for Mrs. Weasley."

"How many things are there," asked Ron, dreading the answer even as he asked the question.

"JUST OVER THREE HUNDRED!" shouted Mrs. Weasley from the other room.

"Well let's just start at the beginning," said Ginny. "What's first?"

"_Clean up dishes from breakfast_," Harry read off the list.

Ginny waved her wand and muttered a spell, "Done," she said as the dirty dishes magically moved to the sink and started to clean them selves. Ginny scanned the list, "This actually won't be too bad, we'll be able to use spells for most of this, there's only a few things that will really take a lot of time."

"Yeah, like degnoming the garden," grumbled Ron.

"I'll flip you for it," said Ginny, "You and Harry vs. Hermione and I"

"Fine," said Ron, pulling a sickle from is pocket, "head's or tails?"

"Heads," said Ginny as Ron flicked the coin into the air.

Harry reached out and snatched the coin out of the hair and slapped it onto the back of his hand. Moving his hand away he saw the engraved relief of Merlin, "Damn" he said, "The Girls win."

"Fine," Ron grumbled, heading towards the door. "Come on Harry, whoever gets a gnome the farthest doesn't have to clean out the broom shed."

"Works for me," said Harry as he followed Ron out the door.

It took Ron and Harry nearly an hour to degnome the garden. While the Weasleys had been hiding the gnomes had all but taken over, and they had multiplied. Harry and Ron took turns throwing the gnomes in the air and using a pushing spell to send them flying over the fence. Harry was worried at first that doing that might be a bit cruel, but the gnomes seemed to enjoy it as much as Harry and Ron did.

Harry ended up winning the distance contest, throwing a gnome almost 3000 feet with a single spell. He saw the gnome hit the ground, sending up a plume of dirt as it did. Harry was sure he had hurt the gnome in some way, but was amazed when the gnome immediately got up and staggered towards it's hole.

"Wow," said Ron, "That was some distance."

"Yeah," said Harry, still amazed that the Gnome had been able to get up. There was something else on his mind though, and it had been bothering him ever since breakfast. "Ron," he said, "about last night. I just…"

"Harry," Ron said, cutting Harry off, "what you said this morning is exactly how I want it to be. I won't tell you about what happened between me and Hermione and you won't tell me what happened with you."

"Ok," said Harry, just as glad not to talk about it.

"But Harry if you hurt her…" Ron let his threat go unfinished, letting Harry's imagination run wild with what Ron might do to him.

"I don't plan on hurting her," said Harry. "If I do, I think I'd be just as mad at myself as you would be at me."

"I doubt that," said Ron, "But let's hope that's a theory that we'll never have to test."

"Defiantly," said Harry, levitating his next gnome.

* * *

While the boys were outside Ginny and Hermione were inside, literally cleaning the house from top to bottom. Most of the cleaning was done by magic, but it still required a bit of supervision and there was some stuff that had to be done by hand. However, both girls were glad to have the time so that the two of them could talk, with out being over heard by the rest of the family.

"Well, how was it," Hermione asked almost as soon as they were out of earshot of Mrs. Weasley.

"Breakfast?" asked Ginny casually, "I guess it was good, no better than mom usually makes it."

"You know what I mean," Hermione said with out even cracking a smile.

"Do you really want to know?" asked Ginny, not sure if she was avoiding answering because she was embarrassed or for some other odd reason.

"Well, not all the details," said Hermione, "at least not yet. But yeah, what was it like...you know?"

"My first time?" asked Ginny, not really sure what Hermione was asking about.

"Yeah," said Hermione.

"Wait, you and Ron didn't…?"

"Nope, we snogged for a while, and he started to rub me through my panties, but we didn't get any farther than that." Hermione sounded a little disappointed. "I don't know, we've been together since the final battle, and we've never gotten any farther than rubbing through clothing."

"Look," Ginny said after a silent few seconds, "what I'm about to say I'm saying because you're my best friend, not because I'm trying to get my brother laid."

"Ok," said Hermione.

"Ron is…well Ron," started Ginny, a little embarrassed at what she was about to tell Hermione to do. "He's not going to make the first move, he's to polite for that, at least with you. He doesn't want to rush anything and push you away. I think that if you want it, you're going to have to make the move."

Hermione sighed as she realized just how right Ginny was. She knew Ron wanted to do more than just rub, and she also knew that if she wanted more to happen any time soon she would have to be the one to make the first move.

Ginny looked at Hermione for a few seconds and as the silence started to stretch she said the only thing she could think of. "Hermione, you do know what to do right?" she asked.

Hermione looked appalled, "Of course I do," said Hermione, "I've read quite a few books on the subject and well…I mean…Yes Ginny I know what to do." Hermione started talking very fast, "But what does it feel like? How did it feel last night? All the books say that the first time is supposed to hurt, how much? For how long?"

Ginny almost laughed at her friend's sudden nervousness. She put a gentle hand on Hermione's shoulder to get her to calm down and stop talking. "Yeah, it may hurt a bit, and how much is different for every one. Or at least that's what I've heard from some of the more…experienced girls at school. The first bit of pain wont last too long," a smile came to Ginny's face, "and the feeling after the first bit of pain is more than worth it. But to tell the truth, I'm still a little sore down there, and I have no idea how long that lasts."

Ginny's voice was soft and caring, and that more than anything calmed Hermione down. "Thanks Ginny," Hermione said, giving the younger redhead a quick hug, "I guess I'm just a little scared."

"Of the pain?" asked Ginny, sincerely concerned for Hermione, "Or of something else?"

"Well a little of the pain," admitted Hermione quickly, "but I guess a little bit of whether or not Ron will be as attentive to me after we… you know."

"Hermione, if all Ron wanted was sex from you he would have tried something already. The fact that he's holding off shows that he really does care." Ginny smiled softly and patted Hermione on the arm as they moved to the next room and started it cleaning itself. "Plus if he tosses you aside after you two screw I'll kill him."

Hermione let a bit of laughter escape her lips, "Thanks Ginny, I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"No problem," said Ginny as the broom swept the dust from the many boxes of WWW products in George and Fred's old bedroom. As she watched the broom work memories of the Fred started to flood her mind. One of her strongest and happiest memories of her dead older brother was the first time that he and George had showed her some of the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products.

They had been working on them for most of the summer and she had been the first, and only, other Weasley allowed into their bedroom to see what they were doing. She had been amazed at her older brothers' inventiveness and talent. While everybody else in the family had thought of them as pranksters with no faculty for learning she had always known that they were extremely talented, just not in the classroom.

Ginny was snapped out of her memory by Hermione, "Ginny," the older girl said loudly while snapping her fingers in front of Ginny's face.

"What?" asked Ginny, shaking herself out of the recesses of her own mind.

"I asked if you could…distract Harry tonight so that I can take Ron up to his room and…?"

"Yeah," said Ginny with a smile, answering before Hermione could finish the question, "I was planning on bringing him to my room again anyway."

"Thanks," said Hermione, a blush coming to her face.

"Don't mention it," said Ginny a mischievous smile on her face, "Just remember to…you know…use protection."

Hermione's blush deepened as Ginny walked out of the room and onto the next one.

As the girls continued cleaning the house they talked quietly about what some of the stories they had heard from some of the girls at school. when they were finally finished with cleaning they met the boys outside to finish with the rest of the chores.

Harry and Ginny went off to clean up the garden while Ron and Hermione went the other way towards the stand of trees that the Weasley children used to practice Quidditch.

At Lunch time the group took a break from the list, and realized that it was only half way done. After eating a delicious and refreshing lunch made by Mrs. Weasley the group got back to work, realizing just how much the house had fallen into disrepair while the Weasleys were in hiding. By dinner the group had finished the long list and were exhausted. After they were finished helping Mrs. Weasley clean up the dishes all four headed up stairs to sleep.

At Ginny's door Harry hesitated, wanting to spend another night with Ginny, but not sure if he was overstepping his rights.

His doubts were quickly dispelled when Ginny grabbed his hand and softly pulled him into her room with her. She shut the door and pushed him back against it. Ginny kissed Harry fully and melted into his arms as he returned the kiss.

"What about Hermione?" Harry asked, realizing what the answer must be as soon as he finished asking the question.

Ginny smiled seductively, "Her and Ron are going to have their own…special night," Ginny said as she pulled Harry to her bed.

"Ohhh, no," said Harry, apparently having a different idea as he pulled Ginny away from the bed, "I'm not going to go to sleep…or do anything else, with out a shower first."

"Oh," said Ginny, letting go of his hand, she sat down heavily on her bed, a bit dejected. She too felt very dirty from their day's work, but she really wanted to have sex with Harry again. Her urge wasn't helped by the fact that Harry was stripping his shirt and pants off as he walked towards the bathroom connected to Ginny's room.

As Harry opened the door, completely naked, he looked back at Ginny. "Aren't you going to join me?" he asked playfully.

Ginny jumped up, very excited once again. She quickly pulled off the sweat stained cloths that she had been wearing all-day and walked over to Harry. He left the door open and walked into the bathroom where Ginny heard the water turn on. As she reached the door Ginny saw Harry pull the curtain aside and step into the shower. As he spotted her at the door he beckoned her over to join him.

As Ginny walked over to him Harry couldn't help but admire her beautiful body. Last night he had seen it, but since it had been dark in the room and Harry's mind had been focused on pleasing Ginny he hadn't really been able to study it, not like he had wanted to. Ginny stopped a few paces away from the shower, letting Harry get a perfect look at her.

Now Harry could see Ginny in all her glory. Her skin was pale which contrasted beautifully with her fiery red hair. She had beautiful curves that were well maintained by her Quidditch conditioning. She had narrow, muscular legs that practically rippled as she moved and strong arms that could throw a Quaffle half way across a Quidditch pitch with perfect accuracy. At 5' 6" she was the perfect height for Harry's 5' 10". Her breasts, about the size of large orange halves, were the perfect size for her frame and very perky, bouncing a little with each step she took.

Ginny saw Harry's eyes running over her body and she got a little self conscious, at least until Harry opened his mouth and spoke. "Wow Ginny," Harry said, his mouth hanging open, "you look absolutely amazing."

This caused Ginny to blush, but she took the opportunity to study Harry's body as well. His whole body was muscular, but not in the way of people that worked out constantly. Instead his muscle had come from hard work and use. He was shorter than most other guys, but she liked that. She knew his face well and knew that his normal expression, suspicion combined with a bit of longing and a little pain softened by a warm smile, had come from 10 years of having to live with a horrible Aunt and Uncle and another 7 years of being called upon to save the Wizarding world over and over again. But now the expression he turned on the rest of the world was gone, replaced with a love so intense that Ginny couldn't help but return the feeling. She knew that in his muscular arm she would be safe.

"Well are you coming in or what?" Harry asked after a few moments of silence.

Ginny just smiled and stepped into the shower with Harry, reaching over and turning on the water. She jumped a bit as the hot water hit her, she quickly turned the water's heat down to a more tolerable level and then stepped into the spray.

Harry watched Ginny as she rinsed herself off, letting the warm water stream over her perfectly shaped body, slowly turning to let the water wash every part of her. Harry stepped up to her as her back was turned to him, putting his arms around her waist and pressing himself into the small of her back. "You look absolutely beautiful," he said, kissing her cheek as she leaned back into his arms. Harry turned them a bit so that he too was standing in the stream of soothing warm water.

Ginny tuned her head slowly towards Harry's after he kissed her on the cheek. She cupped his face with her hand and let him kiss her softly on the mouth. As his face backed away from hers a little she got a good look at his wet head. Even now, with his hair being soaked by the showerhead, his jet-black hair still found a way to be messy and unorganized, with a few pieces in the back refusing to stay down. Ginny couldn't help but smile at Harry, laughing a bit inside at Harry's hair.

Ginny leaned into Harry, bringing another kiss, this time on the mouth. She felt his tongue seeking entrance to her mouth, and she gladly granted it. As their tongues danced around each other Ginny turned herself so she was facing Harry completely.

Ginny broke the kiss and quickly grabbed the bar of soap sitting on the soap tray. She started to rub Harry's chest down, leaving streaks of soapy lines across his broad chest and letting the water wash away her work almost as soon as she had done it. After she finished she put the soap down and kissed her way down his chest and to his hard cock. She looked up at Harry and smiled at him.

Ginny kissed the tip of Harry's dick before slowly taking it into her mouth. She started with his head, sucking only it into her mouth and then letting it out, she continued this, each time taking a bit more into her mouth each time.

Soon Harry had started to slowly thrust his hips in rhythm with Ginny's mouth. He leaned back against the shower wall and started to massage Ginny's scalp and running her orange hair though his fingers.

One of Ginny's hands drifted between her legs and she stick two fingers in her pussy, thrusting them in and out as Harry's member moved in and out of her mouth. After a few minutes Ginny started to lick the head of Harry's member, her tongue swirling around the spongy skin. Ginny reached one hand up and started to rub Harry's shaft, starting slowly and building up speed. Ginny heard Harry start to moan and she started to move her fingers a bit faster.

"Ginny….I'm….about…to…cum" Harry moaned after less than a minute.

Ginny sucked Harry's cock as far into her mouth as she could and swirled her tongue around once more and suddenly she felt Harry tense up as he emptied a load into the back of her throat. She practically gagged at the first squirt, but after that she was ready, swallowing most of it as Harry moaned her name.

Ginny barely had time to catch her breath before Harry pulled her up and kissed her deeply. Ginny had been close to her own orgasm when Harry unloaded himself into her mouth and Harry could feel the pent up tension in her body as he kissed her. He took his hand and moved it between her legs, quickly finding her clit. He rubbed her until he felt her body relax in his arms as she came.

The teens stayed in that position for a while, letting the hot water cascade over their entwined naked bodies. Finally Harry found his voice, "Where did you learn that?" asked Harry, not really sure he wanted to know.

"The same place you learned to finger me," Ginny said jokingly.

"That works," said Harry, hugging Ginny tight to him.

The two teens spent another fifteen minutes in the shower, washing each other off and just enjoying the touch of the other. When they finished Harry turned off the water and the two young lovers stepped out of the shower.

Out of habit both looked around for a towel and both realized that neither had brought one into the bathroom with them.

When Harry realized this he reached out and wrapped his arms around Ginny's still dripping waist. "I don't think we need towels," he said, kissing the side of her neck.

Ginny just smiled, turning herself around she looked up at Harry and drew him into a short deep kiss. After she broke off the kiss Ginny grabbed Harry's hand and led him back into her bedroom. She walked him to the bed and pushed him down onto it so that he was lying face up, spread eagle and completely naked.

Harry couldn't help but smile at the sight of Ginny standing naked over him. He felt himself get hard again and started to wonder exactly what Ginny's plan was, not that he would stop her.

Ginny's smile grew as she saw Harry getting hard and she climbed on top of him, straddling him. She could feel his pulsating dick pressing against her folds and she could not help but moan as the thought of Harry's dick filling her young pussy raced through her mind. Putting her hands on Harry's chest Ginny leaned down and kissed her boyfriend deeply. After breaking the kiss Ginny sat up, and performed a contraceptive charm on herself, then she raised herself up on her knees and reached between her legs, taking Harry's hard cock and guiding it to her ready slit. She slowly lowered herself on to Harry's pole, moaning softly as it stretched her pussy. Ginny sat there for a second, getting used to the feeling of Harry's dick inside of her.

After a few seconds Harry started to move his hips a bit under Ginny, sending little pulses of pleasure up her spine. Ginny groaned a bit and then Raised herself up again, letting almost all of Harry's dick slide out before lowering herself onto him. This time Ginny didn't sit there; she raised herself up immediately and then lowered herself. She did this again and again, each time going a bit faster, and soon Harry was meeting her thrusts with his own, slamming his hips into hers and shoving his dick deep into her pussy.

Harry suddenly stopped his thrusts, causing Ginny to do the same. Harry sat up and pulled Ginny to him, kissing her deeply and taking one of her breasts in his hand.

Ginny broke the kiss, panting she started to ask, "Harry What…?"

"I want to try something else," Harry said, moving the two of them back and leaning against the headboard. Then he started to thrust into her again. Taking Ginny's left nipple into his mouth Harry used his left hand to tweak Ginny's right nipple. Harry's left hand wrapped around Ginny's waist, giving her something to lean back against as Harry pounded her.

Ginny moved her hips with Harry's and she quickly started moaning as the pleasure built. Ginny was still a bit built up from the fingering she had received in the bathroom and the ball of pleasure quickly filled the pit of her stomach. Then with one final, hard, deep thrust Ginny moaned Harry's name into his shoulder as her orgasm ripped through her body, her whole body clenching around Harry as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her.

Harry kept thrusting as Ginny orgasmed, feeling her pussy squeeze his dick with each thrust he made. It didn't take long for Harry to feel his own orgasm start. He felt his whole body clench as he emptied himself into Ginny's convulsing pussy.

This sent another shiver through Ginny's body, a small orgasm. The two teens sagged as their orgasms finished, their sweaty bodies intertwined. Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny, moving the two of them forward again and lying both of them down.

Ginny smiled, kissed Harry softly on the tip of the nose, "I love you," she whispered as she turned herself over so she was lying on her side, her back facing Harry's front.

Harry put his arm around Ginny's waist and pulled her closer to him. He lifted his head and whispered in her ear, "I love you too." He kissed her on the cheek and then put his head on the pillow behind hers. He felt Ginny's hand move over his and their fingers intertwine. Harry smiled as he closed his eyes, feeling almost as tired as he had after intense Quidditch games. He could already hear Ginny's breathing slowing down as she slipped into sleep. Ginny's soft, slow breathing lulled Harry's mind and he drifted off to sleep.

_A/N: Hope every one liked it. I've been busy, which is why it took so long. I'm also going into the last month of school and I have quite a bit to do for my finals so don't expect another post from me until the middle of May. That being said, I'm going to be taking a break from this story and working on my "Birthday Fun" series. So tell me if you want Harry, Ginny or Ron's birthday to be the next one you all read about. As always, May The Force Be With You._

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	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Here is the next installment of _Harry Potter and His Auror Training. _Since it's been so long here's a recap of what happened in the last chapter. It started the morning after Harry and Ginny's first time sleeping together. Both Teens lost their Virginity. The day after their night of fun Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione spent the day doing chores for Mrs. Weasley. After they were done both couples went to their rooms and had sex, Ron and Hermione for the first time. _

Chapter 6: Stealth and Tracking Part One

Harry awoke early the next morning; the sky was just starting to brighten with the color of a sunrise. He tried to sit up and get out of the bed with out disturbing Ginny; he failed.

"Where are you going so early?" Ginny asked groggily.

Harry looked at the clock next to Ginny's bed; it was just past six AM. "I have to get to training in an hour," said Harry, starting towards the bathroom attached to Ginny's room.

Ten minutes later he was out of the shower and dressed, having magically cleaned the cloths that he had worn on Friday and had left in Ginny's room when he suddenly apparated away to escape discovery by Mrs. Weasley. Looking over at Ginny he saw that she had gone back to sleep, between the chores and sex the day before she must have been exhausted, Harry knew that he was.

Harry yawned as he quietly left the room, making sure that the door didn't make a noise as he closed it behind him. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley bustling around, just starting to get breakfast ready.

"Hello Harry," Mrs. Weasley said in her usually chipper voice.

"Hey Mrs. Weasley," Harry muttered, still only half awake.

"What are you doing up so early dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley, "I would have thought that after yesterday you would have been sleeping in as late as you could."

"I would have," answered Harry, "but Sgt. G has us training six days a week and Saturday is our day off."

"Ah, of course," said Mrs. Weasley, emptying a pan of eggs on to a plate already piled high with sausage and toast. She came over and put the plate in front of Harry, handing him a fork and knife as well.

Harry greedily dug into the food, both replenishing the energy that had been spent the day before and stocking up a reserve for the day of training to come. It took him less than forty minutes to empty his plate, but before Mrs. Weasley could re-fill it he waved her off, "thanks Mrs. Weasley, but I've got to go."

Harry walked out the back door and apparated into the lobby of the ministry, looking forward to another week of training.

Harry quickly made his way to the training room and found that he was the last to arrive, luckily just before the clock struck seven.

"Ah, Harry, nice of you to join us," said Sgt. G sarcastically.

Harry said nothing, knowing that Sgt. G wasn't looking for a response.

Sgt. G just nodded as Harry took his seat around the rarely used chalkboard near the door. Looking up from his notes Sgt. G pushed his bowler back on his head and smiled at the group. "Well, you're all progressing nicely, and we're even a little ahead of schedule on your training. Normally we'd take two months to assess your skill levels and to force any bad habits out of you, but since we're operating on an accelerated training schedule we don't have time to do that. Between what I saw last week, and witness reports from the final battle I know enough about your skills to make a more than adequate assessment."

Seamus raised his hand and Sgt. G nodded in his direction, "What about the bad habits?" Seamus asked.

Sgt. G smiled in a way that reminded Harry of the look on Ginny's face when she was flying towards a keeper with the Quaffle. "What ever bad habits you may have will be forced out of you in the next few months, don't worry." Sgt. G's smile warmed a bit, "We're taking a different approach to your training this time around. Since there are only five of you, and you all have quite a bit of experience we're going to spend a greater proportion of the class time on practice rather than theory."

At this point Sgt. G leaned down and pulled a large book from under his desk and dropped it on top. It made a loud thud on the wooden desk and Harry was pretty sure he heard the wood crack a bit.

Harry instantly recognized the book as one of the ones that he had been told to get for the training. It was a 2000 page tome on stealth and tracking.

"That being said, for the next two weeks we will be going over everything and anything you'll need to know about stealth and tracking. Some of it you may already know, most of it you don't." Sgt. G just smiled his predatory smile again. "Now who can tell me what the first rule of stealth is?"

And they were off. For the next two weeks Harry, Ernie, Dean, Seamus, and Alicia spent almost every waking hour learning everything they could about stealth and tracking. Some of what they learned Harry knew from his time hunting the Horcruxes and much of what they learned Harry wish he'd known while on the run.

One of the most exciting things that they learned was how to cast a Fidelius Charm, the charm that had kept Number 12, Grimmauld Place safe while the Order of The Phoenix was housed there. They learned to track people apparating and to track people by intercepting their owls.

By the end of the first week Harry was sure that his head was about to explode from an information overload, and he knew that this was only a small piece of the training he would be receiving over the summer.

It was Saturday afternoon and Harry was in the living room of the Burrow, reading one of the books that he had to finish for training the next day. He had one arm around Ginny, who was reading a book on Quidditch strategies with her head resting on Harry's shoulder.

Ron and Hermione walked in and sat down across from Harry and Ginny, neither of whom looked up at the couple because they were so engrossed in their reading. Hermione cleared her throat to get the other couple's attention.

Both Harry and Ginny put down their books, and both realized just how long they had been reading as their vision started to grey out around the edges as their eyes struggled to readjust their focus to something that wasn't a foot and a half away. When their vision finally returned to normal both Harry and Ginny looked at their two friends. "What's up guys?" asked Harry, noticing the somewhat embarrassed look on both of his friend's faces.

"We have a…request," said Ron, his voice oddly soft

"What type of request?" asked Ginny.

"Well, as you both know Ron and I have, uh, spent the night together a few times over the last week." It was obvious that Hermione was more than a little embarrassed by what she was saying, and it was even more obvious that Ron was too, his ears were practically the color of beets.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and smiled, "Yeah, we'd figured it out," said Harry. He was still getting home late from Auror training every night and four times in the last week Ginny had stopped him from going up to Ron's room when he got home, each time giggling quietly. The first and second time it had happened he had questioned her about what was going on, but had quickly been deferred from his line of inquiry by Ginny pulling him into a kiss, which eventually lead to sex.

The third time Harry had been expecting it and had stopped Ginny and demanded an answer. She had told him that Hermione and Ron were up in Ron's room, _"doing exactly what I want to do to you right now." _ Harry had shuttered a bit at the thought of his two best friends going at it, but had quickly forgotten his discomfort when Ginny sank down to her knees and pulled his dick out, sucking it into her mouth…. Ginny elbowed him in his ribs, pulling him out of the memory of that night.

"Well we know that the two of you… are forced to share Ginny's room when this happens," said Ron, not even trying to hid his discomfort at having to admit that there was even a possibility of his little sister getting fucked by his best friend.

Hermione continued because she knew there was no way Ron would suggest what they had come down here to suggest. "We were wondering if Harry and I could possibly…switch places," said Hermione, unable to find a better way to put it. "We figure that since I'm already spending more than half my nights up in Ron's room it would be easier to just switch Harry's and my stuff."

Harry couldn't help but laugh a little, "it'll make something easier," he muttered quietly enough so that only Ginny heard him.

She gave his leg a little squeeze of acknowledgement and he felt her shake a bit as she too chuckled at her brother and best friend. "What do you think Harry, do you want to spend every night… in my room?" asked Ginny, quickly changing the last few words in the question as she saw the somewhat mollified look on her brother's face. She had been about to say bed, but she had a small feeling that Ron might actually explode if he had to admit to himself what Harry and Ginny would be doing.

Harry just smiled back at her, "Yeah, I guess I could put up with you," said Harry.

Ginny looked back at her brother and Hermione, "so I take it you haven't told Mum and Dad about this?" she asked

"No, we told them all about our plan of moving Harry out of my room so that Hermione and I can have more privacy and easier access to each other for sex," said Ron sarcastically.

"Right," said Ginny, not really appreciating her brother's sarcasm, but understanding that it came from the part of him that knew exactly what his sister and Harry were doing whenever they spent the night together. "How are we going to hide this from them? They may not be the most observant people in the world, but they aren't stupid."

"If we can run from Voldemort for nine months without getting caught than I think we can hide this from Mum and Dad for a few months," said Ron.

"Plus said Harry," smiling a bit as his friend fringed on hubris, "I've got this." Harry held up the book he was reading, it was entitled _Magical Deception: Hiding Yourself and Your Actions From Others._

Hermione just laughed a bit "Ah, yes, the great Auror, Harry Potter, using his newly found skills to…"

"Don't say it," Ron said forcefully, standing up, "If I can keep my self in denial about the two of them until you're moved in to my room I'll be happy."

Hermione stood up also and kissed her boyfriend's cheek, "Fine," she said with a mischievous smile. "The great Auror, Harry Potter, using his new found skills to…get his best friend laid. Does that work better for you dear?" she asked, artificially sweet.

"Yep," said Ron, "now, lets go pack. Don't worry about your stuff Harry, Hermione and I will take care of it." And with that Ron was out of the room.

That night, after dinner and after reading another one of his books Harry went up to Ginny's room to find her already waiting for him. He had come up to bed later than everyone else in the family, but Ginny was still awake, reading a book with out a title printed on the front.

Harry walked in and smiled at the sight of her. "What you reading?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," said Ginny, shutting the book and putting it away on her bedside table, "Just something the Patil twins sent me from India."

Harry walked over to the bed, leaned down and kissed his girlfriend deeply. "You know I didn't realize until just now how much I've missed spending practically endless hours of time with you.

Ginny reached up a hand and stroked Harry's face gently. "Harry, do you mind if we just sleep tonight? No sex, just curling up in each other's arms and falling asleep."

"Of course not," said Harry, not disappointed at all,

"Good," said Ginny, settling into Harry's arms as he lay down and opened them for her. Both teens lay down together, Harry's arms surrounding Ginny's small yet muscular frame and her head resting on Harry's strong chest. Ginny found herself drifting off to sleep within minutes, the slow rise and fall of Harry's chest and the soft breathing sounds lulling her into a comfortable sleep.

For the next week Harry would come home to the Burrow sometime around eleven o'clock and would go up to Ginny's room. Ginny was up about three quarters of the time, but Harry was exhausted from training and would always fall right to sleep.

Harry woke up one morning after having come home to find Ginny asleep. Harry was both excited and dreading the upcoming day. Yesterday had been the last day of Stealth and Tracking training and today was the exam and practical testing for it. The trainees had spent the last two weeks doing mostly theory work, only doing the spells they learned a few times under Sgt. G's supervision. Sgt. G had told Harry, Seamus, Dean, Ernie and Alicia that today's test would decide who went on to become an Auror at the end of the summer and who would need additional training.

As Harry got up from the bed he did his best not to disturb Ginny. Unfortunately he failed, as Harry was crossing to the bathroom Ginny sat up, "Morning," Ginny said with a yawn, "sorry I was asleep last night, I spent all day on my broom, practicing some new stuff," Ginny finished, pointing to the book she had been reading last Saturday.

Harry walked back over to her and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips, "Good morning to you too," he said.

As Harry started to straighten up Ginny pulled him back down and kissed him more passionately. When they broke the kiss Ginny just smiled, "I can make it a better morning," she said slyly.

Harry felt his dick twitch under the towel he was wearing and was very tempted to take Ginny up on her offer, but he was already running a bit late as it was and he just didn't have time. "I'm sorry Gin, you know I'd love to, but I have the Stealth and Tracking exam today." He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and went to the shower.

When Harry got out of the shower Ginny was sitting up, reading a Quidditch Magazine. She looked up as Harry got out of the shower and started to get dressed. "You know, mum and dad are going into Diagon Ally tomorrow," she said, "they're going to be gone most of the day," she said, as if she had just realized it.

Harry just smiled, knowing exactly where Ginny was going with her mention of the parentless Burrow, and he was glad to follow her there. "Go on," Harry said, searching for a shirt to feign disinterest.

"Well I was thinking that since you have tomorrow off you and I could make a day out of it. For the first time since our relationship started you have a full day where you don't have to be studying and mum doesn't have us doing some chore." Ginny smiled seductively, "I think we need to spend the day together, just you and me, no disruptions, we can really…get to know each other, if you know what I mean."

Harry knew exactly what Ginny meant. The sex that the two of them had been having over the last two weeks had been good, but both of them knew that there could be more, much more. The next day was the perfect opportunity for the couple to spend the day together, alone, exploring each other's bodies with almost unlimited time.

Harry smiled, finally pulling a shirt out of the draw, "sounds like the perfect way to spend the day," he said. He smiled and winked at Ginny as he pulled the shirt over his head. On his way out he grabbed his robe. He made sure to close the door quietly so that no one could tell he had come from Ginny's room.

Harry quietly went down stairs and ate a hearty and hasty breakfast prepared for him by a very chipper Mrs. Weasley.

Harry was about to walk out the door when Mrs. Weasley said, "Oh, Harry dear, just a minute, this letter was waiting for you this morning when I came downstairs." Mrs. Weasley pulled a letter out of her apron pocket and handed it to Harry.

Harry opened it and pulled out a piece of paper with a note scrawled on it.

_Harry, _

_There has been an incident at the Ministry of Magic. The Floo Network into the Ministry has been closed off and anti-apparation charms have been put on the entire facility. Apparently something went wrong down on the 4__th__ floor and there is some worry about people being contaminated. The only people being allowed in or out of the Ministry are Aurors, Department heads, essential personnel and Minister Shacklebolt, but we all have to use Portkeys to get in or out. I've placed a bronze knut in the envelope, it will be your Portkey to get into the Ministry building. It will transport you right to the lobby. The incident doesn't affect the Stealth and Tracking exam in any way. Please come right down to the training room so we can start the exam._

_Sgt. Frank Greenman_

_P.S. I know you're going to feel the need to go down and help, but please don't. We have specially trained people to deal with this type of thing._

Harry turned the envelope over and a bronze Knut fell out, it was already glowing blue, waiting only for Harry to touch it. Harry looked up at Mrs. Weasley, who looked curiously at the glowing Knut on the table. "Something has happened at the Ministry, apparently the Floo network into the ministry is shut down and there are anti-apparation charms on the whole complex." Harry handed her the letter, "I'm sure Mr. Weasley will need to see that as soon as he's up, but if he hasn't already been called in than he probably doesn't need to rush in."

Mrs. Weasley nodded back to the clock with all the Weasley's names on the hands, "He was called in early this morning dear," she said.

Harry looked at the clock and saw that Mr. Weasley's hand was indeed pointed towards _Work_. Harry just nodded, wondering what kind accident had happened at the Ministry. Harry knew that if Sgt. G had thought it necessary for Harry to know exactly what was happening than he would have explained it in the letter. Harry gave Mrs. Weasley a reassuring smile as he picked up his bag and reached for the coin.

As his fingers touched the Knut Harry felt a sharp tug behind his temples and had the sudden sensation of being pulled along at a great speed. Within seconds Harry could see the floor of the Ministry lobby rising to meet him at an alarming pace. Suddenly, when he was only about 20 feet away from the floor the pulling sensation ceased and Harry felt as if he was floating through the air. Harry still hit the ground pretty hard, but he was able to land on his feet, and by running with the impact was able to avoid falling over.

Once Harry had checked himself to make sure that he and all of his stuff had made the trip intact Harry took a quick look around. Harry wasn't surprised to see no one there; it seemed that the Ministry had been all but shut down by the accident. Harry got into the magical elevator and mumbled "Auror Training Area." The Elevator jolted and started moving. Harry had an odd feeling that something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't place what it was and put it down to a combination of being tired and the slight feeling of helplessness that he got from not being able to deal with what ever problem was facing the ministry first hand.

The elevator quickly reached the second floor and Harry stepped out and started towards the Training Area. Harry noticed something odd at that moment. Usually there was a junior Auror on duty in the department to field Owls that came in the middle of the night, and to make sure that if anything happened all the Aurors would be notified as quickly as possible. That junior Auror usually greeted Harry and the other trainees as they came in, sending jibes their way about soon having to be the ones doing LNO duty. LNO stood for Late Night Owl duty, and was jokingly called helLNO duty by the more experienced Aurors. The only time that Harry hadn't seen this Junior Auror on duty was the first morning of training.

But now there were no jibes about being 'one day closer to LNO duty' coming from the cubicles in the Auror office. Harry looked around at the office, and saw no one there, not even a lamp lit to indicate which unlucky Junior Auror had pulled helLNO Duty. The office was completely dark except for the faint light coming from the open door leading to the training area. This too was unusual, the training area door was always kept shut so that stray spells didn't fly out into the office and hurt some one, and so that none of the activity in the office space distract from the training going on.

It was at this point that Harry's brain started to work fully and the feeling of something not being right made sense as everything clicked into place. The Ministry lobby had been completely empty, but there was always supposed to be a security guard on duty at the desk to register visitors no matter the hour. The only other time that Harry hadn't seen him was when Voldemort had lured him and his friends here to retrieve the prophecy.

This left Harry to draw only one conclusion, the ministry was under siege and the Auror Department was, of course, the first target.

Suddenly the lift behind Harry dinged, Harry spun around and pointed his wand at the people stepping out. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan stepped out of the lift and their eyes crossed as they looked at the wand that Harry was pointing at them.

"Harry, what the Fuck mate?" asked Dean, leaning back slightly from Harry.

"Identifier, now," said Harry forcefully, causing both of his fellow trainees to flinch back a bit.

Dean and Seamus looked at each other, clearly worried that Harry had snapped, but both of them knew that even if Harry had snapped he was still the most powerful wizard of their generation and that he could easily blast the two of them to smithereens without having to say a single word. Their recent Auror training had also taught them that when you had a wand pointed at you and had no chance of reaching you own wand the best thing to do was to comply with the wand wielder's demands.

Seamus was the first to speak, "Dean and I fought our first year when he put up a poster of the West Ham football team…"

"And he bewitched it so that the players all moved like in a 'normal wizarding picture," finished Dean

Harry nodded and lowered his wand. The story was indeed true and Harry had been the only one to know about the fight. "Alright," he said."

"Now answer my question," said Dean, "What the Fuck mate?"

"The ministry has been infiltrated and the Auror Department is under attack," said Harry. Harry examined his colleague's reactions, both of them were surprised at first, but both got over it quickly. To their credit neither Dean nor Seamus asked if Harry was sure, they just pulled their wands and swept the room with their eyes, looking for any clues that could help them.

Even though neither man had asked for it Harry pointed out the clues that had led him to his conclusion. "The guard that is usually downstairs is gone, the door to the training room is open, and there's no Junior Auror on LNO duty. The only conclusion I can draw is that the Ministry is under attack from someone, probably left over Death Eaters."

"The incident on the 4th floor," started Seamus, "a true accident or a set up to get most people out and cover an attack on the Ministry?"

"Or to get the Aurors in," said Dean

It was at this point that the lift dinged again, however when it opened there was no one there, suddenly two people shot out from the door, both of them with wands held high and covering each other's blind side. Alicia and Ernie finished their sweep of the room and looked up at the other three Auror trainees.

"Identifiers," said Ernie, not quite as forcefully as Harry, but in a way that would compel most people to speak.

"You, Me, Hermione, and Ron worked together 3rd year to re-pot mandrakes in Herbology," said Harry, "and Dean and Seamus have already confirmed themselves with me."

"Good," said Alicia. "The Ministry is…"

"Not so fast," said Harry, slowly raising his wand to point at Alicia, "I want Identifiers from you two."

"Ernie already gave me his, and Wood's speech for your first Quidditch match was the shortest he ever gave while you were on the team."

Harry nodded as he lowered his wand. Alicia hadn't been the only person in the room for that speech, but considering there had only been five other people in the room at the time and that one of them was now dead it was a pretty good bet that this was the real Alicia.

"Now, as I was saying," Alicia said as she too lowered her wand, "The Ministry is under attack, the guard that is usually in the lobby to register visitors is gone."

"And there's no Junior Auror on LNO duty and the training room door is open," said Harry, pointing to the dark set of cubicles and training room door.

The slightly worried look on Ernie's face grew to all out fear as he realized what this meant, "The Auror Department has been attacked," he said. It was a statement, not a question.

"My question is, was the letter we all got from Sgt. G legitimate or a way to draw us all here?" Alicia looked concerned now also, although her face was slowly changing to contemplative as she worked through different scenarios in her head and thought through the situation.

"I think the letter was legit, but Dean, Harry and I were just debating whether or not the incident it mentions was an actual accident or a deliberate sabotage on the part of the attackers."

"I think it was deliberate sabotage," said Ernie, "an operation that can take down a security guard, Junior Auror and maybe even a few more experienced Aurors is not something that happens because you heard about the Ministry begin evacuated because of some accident."

"And it's not somebody from inside the Ministry, or at least not somebody who knows the security protocols," said Harry. "They may have known that an accident would have evacuated the ministry, but the accident called in the Aurors, Department Heads and Minister Shacklebolt, among others. That's basically a list of the most powerful and experienced wizards and witches in the building."

"Or the incident the infiltrators set off went wrong and created a different type of situation," said Dean, "The groups that you just mentioned are only called in all together for two reason; A security breach, or a magical creature escape. Something that started as a 'magical accident' on the 3rd floor, where the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes is housed, could have easily caused an escape of something in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures…"

"On the 4th Floor," finished Alicia.

"Exactly," said Dean. "An accident in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes would only have called in the Minister, that department head and some personnel from that department, but it still would have caused a full evacuation."

"We need to see what that accident was," said Seamus.

"I'll go," said Harry with out hesitation, "I have my Invisibility cloak. The rest of you make sure there is no one in the Auror Office or training room. If I'm not back in 20 minutes go to the Burrow and get Hermione and the Weasleys and tell Hermione to contact the rest of the D.A."

"Will Do," said Ernie.

Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out of his bag, he'd brought it with him today because the exam was supposed to be a practical one and being able to hide quickly was one of the things that they had been studying. Harry had an invisibility cloak and Sgt. G hadn't said Harry couldn't use it.

Harry put down his bag, which was packed with books, and donned the cloak, taking only his wand with him he got into the lift and said, "Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes." The lift started to go down, quickly reaching the third floor.

The Lift dinged as it reached the third floor and opened. Harry had already moved to the side of the lift so that he was out of the direct line of fire when the doors opened. Even though he was invisible Harry wasn't about to get taken down by a jumpy attacker who shot spells into seemingly empty lifts because he was nervous.

When no spells came tearing through the opening door Harry figured it was safe enough poke his invisible head around the edge of the doors and see what was going on. When Harry looked around the edge of the door all he saw was sterile white halls and clearly labeled doors. This was completely normal for this floor, so Harry considered going down to the fourth floor to see what the accident had been, but decided against this course of action precisely because he didn't know what had happened down there and wasn't about to expose himself to something potentially dangerous.

Harry stepped out of the lift and started walking quietly down the halls. He put his hand to each door, knowing that any type of magic that could cause a catastrophic accident on this level would have some temperature indication.

Four doors down the hall Harry reached out his left hand and felt heat radiating off the door while it was still three inches away. Harry didn't need any more evidence. His 7 years running into trouble both figuratively and literally had given him a pretty good gut instinct and right now his gut was telling him that this was where the accident had started.

Harry took a piece of paper out of his pocket and scrawled a quick note.

_Found the source of the accident. Office 356. Have entered office and will proceed from there._

Harry crumpled the note up and with a quick jab of his wand and a silent spell made it disappear.

One of the things that Harry and the other Auror trainees had learned in the last two weeks was the stealthiest way's to communicate. One of these ways was to write a note and then make it apparate to the person who was supposed to receive the note. The only audible evidence of the communication was the small crack that came from the apparation. But luckily the smaller an object was the less noise it made upon disapparation. This meant that anything larger than a 5 cm by 5 cm square of paper would make too loud of a noise to do stealthily. It was also really difficult to do properly, if done wrong the note wouldn't be the only thing sent to the person receiving the note, the sender's fingers or even whole hand could be sent also. But it had been something that Sgt. G had made Harry, Alicia, Seamus, Dean and Ernie learn so Harry was glad to finally find a use for it.

Harry waved his wand at the door, he wordlessly performed an Alohamora charm, unlocking the door and letting it swing open a bit. Harry used a week expelling charm to open the door further and as he did he felt a blast of hot air from behind the door.

Harry pushed harder with the repelling spell, forcing the door to open all the way. What he saw when it did surprised him more than almost anything else in his life.

The Door opened into what used to be a 20 foot by 20 foot room. But now it wasn't much of a room any more. The floor was almost completely gone. The only thing left of it was a six inch ledge that ringed the room at floor level. Harry stepped into the door way, looking down at the chaos beneath him. He looked down into a large area filled with what used to be cubicles. The chunks of floor that had fallen had crushed nearly every cubicle that Harry could see.

Harry looked up and at the walls of the room that he was standing on the edge of. He could see a few places of black char and even a large burn circle on the ceiling, but could see no obvious evidence of whether or not there had been anybody in the room at the time of the explosion.

Harry looked down again, studying the flaming debris more carefully to try and figure out what exactly the room had been used for before it had become the second story of the office space below. Harry saw quite a few mangled chairs, a desk and what looked like a table, if a table had been smashed over the head of a giant. Then it occurred to Harry that the room was probably labeled and that in his haste to check each door for evidence of the epicenter of the accident he had forgotten to check the room placards. Harry leaned back and looked at the placard. It labeled the room as the _Accidental Magic Repair and Removal Team. _Harry had never heard of the office before but he assumed it dealt with fixing the damage done by accidental magic or removed any spells put on anything that the witch or wizard who placed the spell couldn't remove themselves. Harry imagined that this was the office that dealt with his Aunt Marge after he inflated her like a balloon before his third year. Harry chuckled to himself at the memory of his very annoying Aunt Marge floating away on the wind.

Harry quickly put the image out of his mind and brought himself back to the present. He went through a checklist that Sgt. G had drilled into the trainees over the last few weeks. First was self, he was perfectly healthy and hidden, and as far as he knew there was nothing dangerous in the air. Second was others, and since there was no one else around Harry didn't have to worry about this step. Third was surroundings, Harry quickly inventoried his surroundings, taking in everything he had noticed before as well as a few things that he had missed. For instance he now saw a pile of debris right under the door that came almost half way up to this floor's level, leaving only a 5 foot drop if somebody were to take a step from the door. Fourth was resources, Harry had his wand, his knowledge, his training his invisibility cloak and the other four trainees upstairs. Fifth and final was enemies, and since Harry didn't see any he wasn't too worried at the moment. However Sgt. G had taught them that even if you didn't see an obvious enemy immediately it didn't mean they weren't there. Harry immediately looked for signs that could point out a hidden enemy or a track of somebody else.

What Harry saw when he looked closer at all the debris was the trial of extinguished fire that led from the bottom of the 5 foot pile under the door towards the left side of the office space below. Harry also saw many places where potential ambushers could be waiting.

Harry knew that the second he jumped on to the pile below him he would create a noise and visible disturbance that would announce his presence to anybody in the room below. Harry decided that rather than go in wearing his invisibility cloak and have to worry about getting tangled up in it if he had to run he would take the cloak off and attempt to get down to the lower level with out the cloak wrapped around him.

Harry stepped out of the room to take the cloak off. Just as he put the cloak into his bag the elevator dinged and Harry dropped to the floor, lying flat to make himself both less visible and a smaller target. The lift opened and Ernie Macmillan stepped out.

He looked down at Harry and smiled, "Hey Harry, we got your note and figured that at least one of us should come down and back you up."

Harry didn't ask Ernie for an identifier, the Ernie in front of him was wearing the exact same clothing that Ernie had been wearing earlier and Harry knew Ernie's mannerisms well enough to know that this was the real Ernie. Sure, it was safer to ask for an identifier each time somebody came into a dangerous situation, but it was also slow and could interfere in a time when all your concentration had to be focused some where else. Knowing what Ernie had been wearing and knowing his mannerisms wasn't as exact as Identifiers, but in a situation like this it was more than adequate. "I'm glad for the help," Harry said. He quickly explained what he had seen inside the room to Ernie, who also quickly took a look and confirmed the trial that Harry had seen as well as the nearly endless number of hiding places in the piles of debris.

"I say we levitate each other down there." said Ernie, "while one is doing the levitation charm the other can be watching for signs of attack and can fend off any attacks that may come our way."

"Exactly what I was thinking," said Harry, standing up and slinging his bag onto his back. He stepped up to the door and almost immediately he was floating through the air, slowly dropping the ten feet to the ground. As soon as his feet hit he dashed to a hiding spot behind some rubble. The hiding spot hid him from most of the room but still let him see Ernie on the ledge above him.

Harry lifted his wand and levitated Ernie down next to him. So far so good, neither had seen anything to suggest that there were hidden attackers, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Harry turned his attention to the open space in front of him and Ernie. It was massive, filled with cubicles, obviously the office space for the entire Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Most of the room was undisturbed, the only place where there was damage was below the gaping hole in the ceiling. Harry saw Ernie wave his hand once, catching Harry's attention. Ernie indicated his eyes and then pointed towards the far corner of the room. Harry looked over there, seeing an open door. Harry nodded to Ernie, and beckoned him over.

Ernie came quickly and quietly, when he arrived next to Harry the two ducked down behind the slab of ceiling that they were hiding behind. Harry took out his invisibility cloak and threw it over him and Ernie. It barely covered them, but it would protect them from all but the most observant eyes and from any spells shot at them.

"Alright, I say we go to the door and see what we can find out about the 'accident' that happened here." Ernie whispered as soon as the cloak was over the two of them

"Alright," said Harry, whispering also, "but I think we should avoid using the cleared route that we noticed earlier. If I were somebody who had broken into the Ministry I would have booby-trapped any trails that I could have left."

"Why are we assuming that the people that broke in here are that smart?" asked Ernie

"Because it's better to overestimate an opponent than to underestimate one. If they didn't booby-trap the path than sure, it would be quicker to go that way, but if they did, than both of us end up at least injured and at worst dead. I don't know about you, but I'd rather take a bit of extra time and survive to find out that I didn't need to than rush into something and find out that I needed to take the extra time." Harry said all of this with complete calm in his voice that betrayed nothing of the fear he was feeling. Sure he had faced Voldemort before and won, but each and every time he had gone on one of those missions the enemy had always been a semi known quantity. Harry had always been able to put a face to whom he was fighting. Now he had no idea who could be waiting around the corner. It was the unknown that frightened him more than anything else.

Harry took a deep breath while looking around the large room, he saw a very convoluted route to the other side of the debris field that didn't take them across the 'cleared' path.

"We can get across without having to extinguish any fires," whispered Harry, "but it's going to take some time."

"Well like you said, safety first," said Ernie. His tone of voice telling Harry that Ernie obviously thought that in this situation expediency was more important.

All Harry said was, "Right," and then he stood up slowly, making sure that Ernie stood with him and that the invisibility cloak was covering both of them completely.

For the next 45 minutes Harry and Ernie slowly walked through a course of non-burning rubble that took them from one side of the room to the other over and over again. When they finally reached the other side of the rubble pile they stopped and looked back, seeing their original hiding place only 30 feet directly behind them only punctuated just how bad the damage was.

Harry looked forward towards the door, between Him, Ernie and it was about 100 feet of cubicles each one presenting a very good hiding spot for a potential ambusher to hide in.

Harry was suddenly struck by a moment of inspiration that he imagined Hermione felt at least once a week. He led Ernie over to a dark corner quickly and took off the Invisibility cloak.

"Alright, how are we going to get past the cubicles?" asked Ernie in a whisper. Like Harry he knew that the invisibility cloak wouldn't help them get past any advanced warning spells that may have been set up.

Harry just smiled as he quickly reached out and rapped Ernie on the top of the head with his wand.

Ernie's own wand was up in an instant and pointing at Harry, "Alright, what did you do to me?" asked the very confused and scared Auror trainee.

"I put a Disillusionment charm on you," said Harry as he rapped himself on the head. His mind went back to just before his 5th year at Hogwarts when Mad-Eye Moody had cast a Disillusionment charm on Harry to transport him from the Dursleys to Number 12 Grimmuald Place. "It doesn't exactly make you invisible, but it'll hide you from people looking quickly at a room they expect to be empty. Also the fire and ash in the air will make the room look hazy too."

"Ok," said Ernie, squirming a bit as he looked down at his body to find that it seemed to have changed consistency. "But what about the advanced warning charms and auto trigger spells that could have been put on any of the cubicles?"

Harry smiled again, this was the part of his hastily thought up plan that he was the most proud of. Taking off his glasses he tapped them five times in an arrhythmic sequence and muttered something under his breath.

"What did you do?" asked Ernie

"I put a spell on my glasses that will make it so that I can see trace magical residue. The residue will show me where spells have been cast in the last few hours as well as where there are spells that are just sitting waiting for a trigger."

Ernie smiled also, catching on to Harry's plan. Pulling out his own wand he tapped the side of his head in the same arrhythmic sequence as Harry had on his glasses and muttered something else. When Harry looked at him inquisitively Ernie's smile grew bigger, "something my mum taught me a few years ago for a hunting trip my muggle dad and I went on. It lets me see the world in infrared, so if anyone is hiding in the cubicles I'll be able to see their body heat."

"Brilliant," Harry said, putting his glasses back on. As soon as his glasses were in place Harry looked back at the gaping hole that he and Ernie had come through. He saw two pink trails where he and Ernie had used the Levitation Charms to descend to this level as well as a pale yellow blanket that followed the trial that the two of them had seen from above. Harry didn't see any magical residue that indicated any booby-traps had been set in the path, but he didn't tell Ernie that.

Harry next looked at Ernie; he saw a bright blue aura around him as well as a small concentration of red around Ernie's eyes. The green was the Disillusionment Charm and the Red had to be the Infrared Spell that Ernie had cast on himself. Harry imagined that he looked much the same as Ernie did, but he didn't take the time to examine himself.

Harry focused his attention on the cubicles, what he saw surprised him a bit. There were only three concentrations of magic that Harry could see. One was a deep purple and had tendrils that exited the cubicle and then branched out to cover a ten-foot long swath of floor. A second one encompassed a sphere that was five feed wide and was colored grey. The third, and farthest away, spell was sitting in the doorway, and had a field that completely blocked the doorway; it was a strobbing orange that made Harry think of emergency blinkers.

"I've got one that looks like some sort of entrapment spell," said Harry, pointing to the deep purple spell. "A second spell that looks like it might be a spell to cause confusion and disorientation, and a third one that is defiantly an advanced warning charm." Harry took his glasses off and handed them to Ernie so that he could look at the spells also.

"The Purple one will be easy enough to get around, we can levitate over it," Ernie said as he looked through the glasses, "but we'll have to be careful to keep low, there's a warm body in the cubicle right after the one where the entrapment spell originates. The grey cloud will be a bit more difficult; we may have to disarm it. The last one is going to be the hardest though. There's really no way to get past an early warning charm, and if we disarm it than who ever cast it will know that there's somebody here."

Harry and Ernie decided that it would be better to deal with the early warning charm when they got to it, the first objective was to get past the other two spells. The first one was easy enough. Ernie crept along the far wall until he was just out of sight of the guy waiting in the cubicle, then he took one more step so that he could see the guy. Since Ernie was in the shadows and was under the cover of the disillusionment charm he was able to hit the guy with a stunning spell before the guy saw him. After this Harry levitated Ernie over the purple spider web of a spell and then was levitated into the cubicle with the guy that Ernie had stunned. Harry performed a quick memory charm, taking just enough of the guy's memory so that he would forget being stunned and just think that he had fallen asleep on the job. Harry would have rather bound the guy or used verisyrum to get him to tell Harry and Ernie what was going on but Harry didn't have any verisyrum and Ernie had pointed out that the man may have to report to somebody at designated times so leaving him able to function was the best way to cover their presence.

Next Harry was levitated out of the cubicle and to an isle that led towards the center of the room. By going three rows into the massive complex of cubicles Harry and Ernie were able to avoid the confusion cloud. They found another isle and went back to the edge of the room that they had been traveling along. Both men traveled along the wall, staying in shadow until they were close to the door. Once they were 5 meters away from the open door they stopped.

"What do you think?" asked Harry, "Do we set it of and wait for whoever cast it to come back so we can capture them?"

Ernie smiled a devious smile that Harry had never seen on him, "No, we go around it," said the blond man, looking at the wall.

"What?" asked Harry, taking a look at the same stretch of wall that Ernie was looking at, but not finding it anymore remarkable than any other section of the hundred feed of wall they had been traveled along.

With out saying a word Ernie turned to the wall, muttered some thing that made the tip of his wand start to glow white with magic. Harry took his glasses off because the magic's glow was hurting his eyes, but the tip of Ernie's wand was still glowing white with heat.

Ernie put the tip of his wand to the wall just above his head and started to draw a line down the wall. A thin orange line appeared as Ernie's wand dragged along the wall. When Ernie's wand finally reached the floor he pulled it along the bottom of the wall for about two feet and then started to pull it up the wall, drawing another line about the same height as the first one. Then with a slow swoop Ernie connected the tops of the two vertical lines. This left a glowing orange rectangle on the wall.

Ernie repeated the process, except this time he ran his wand just on the inside of the original rectangle. Also, as his wand traveled along the wall a thin strip of wall seemed to disappear. As soon as Ernie was done with his second pass the section of wall that he had outlined started to tip in towards him and Harry. Both men reached out and caught the six-foot by two-foot section of wall, keeping it from smashing to the ground.

After helping Ernie slowly lower the piece of wall to the ground Harry looked at where the wall was supposed to be. In its place was a six-foot by two-foot hole, just big enough for Ernie and Harry to pass through one at a time.

"Ernie, that was genius," said Harry with a big smile, "Where did you lean that spell, I've never seen it before?"

"Found it in one of me Mum's historical spell books," said Ernie proudly, "she collects magic relics. I found the cutting spell in an old book of torture spells." Ernie turned and looked at the hole and then at his wand, "I'm glad to see it put to a better use."

"Me too," said Harry, putting his classes back on. The edges of the whole glowed brightly white with magical residue, and when Harry looked over at the advanced warning charm in the doorway it didn't look any different than it had before, leading Harry to believe that they hadn't set it off.

Harry poked his head through the hole. What he saw was somewhat similar to the hallway upstairs, it was clean but the lights were out and everything seemed normal. If it were not for large hole in the wall that Harry's head was poking through, a passerby would never know that there was anything wrong.

Harry stepped through the whole, keeping a lookout for anything that could indicate that Ernie's little trick had set off the early warning charm or to indicate that an ambush was about to be sprung. As Ernie stepped through and took over watching the hallway Harry turned back to the hole and magically stood the section of wall back up. With a little flick of his wand he connected the wall back to its surroundings in only a few small places, leaving it attached just enough to stand on its own. Harry stepped back and admired his little bit of handy work. Unless anybody was looking for it, it would be almost impossible to see the place where the wall had been cut, and no one studied walls very closely.

Harry looked up and down the hall again. To his right, about 120 feet away was the lifts that brought people to and from other floors. To his left was another 300 feet of hallway that was broken up by doors that obviously led to other parts of the floor.

Ernie had been studying the hall too, he turned to Harry and said, "What do you think, we search every single room to see if there's anybody here?" As he asked this Ernie was tapping the side of his head, removing the infrared vision charm from himself. "Sorry, the infrared vision gives me a headache after a while.

Harry considered doing the same, but decided that the ability to see spell residue would be too useful as they made their way to the far end of the hall "Yeah," said Harry, nodding, "we go down and search room by room."

"Alright, let's start," said Ernie, starting to go towards the lifts.

"No, not that way," said Harry, putting a hand on Ernie's shoulder to stop him, "we start at the far end of the hall and work our way towards the lifts, this way if anybody comes off the lift they'll be in front of us instead of behind us." Harry though he saw Ernie nod his head, but it was hard to tell with the disillusionment charm still in place.

Harry and Ernie carefully made their way to the far end of the hallway, with Harry keeping his eyes on the lift and all the doors behind them for any sign of movement or spells. By the time they got to the far end of the Hallway Harry hadn't seen any other spells with his magically enhanced glasses. He took them off and tapped them in the same arrhythmic pattern that he had earlier and the charm that showed him magical residue was removed.

Harry and Ernie turned around and saw the 400 plus feet of corridor infront of them and the 50 or so doors that lined the corridor. Ernie turned to Harry and asked, "left or right?"

Harry shook his head, "We stick together, and while one of us searches the room the other keeps an eye out for somebody coming out of another room."

"I know," said Ernie, smiling, "I was asking if you wanted to start with the left or the right door. Both of them are equally far away from us."

"Oh," said Harry, a bit embarrassed for scolding his fellow trainee. Harry looked at both doors and said, "Right."

The two men walked towards the door, and as they did Harry looked at the lettering on the door, it read, _Exotic and Dangerous Creature Registry Office. _

Harry and Ernie took up positions on opposite sides of the door. Harry was on the side of the doorknob so Ernie reached out and grabbed the knob. It would be Ernie's job to open the door to give Harry entrance, and then Ernie would follow Closely behind to help Harry clear out the rest of the room.

Harry held up three fingers and counted down silently. When his last finger dropped Ernie pulled the door open quickly and Harry took two quick steps inside. Harry swept the room with his wand and looked for anything that was a threat. He saw nothing threatening; they had entered a small room with 4 rows of chairs facing back to back and a line of 5 teller like windows at one end.

Once he was certain that nothing was going to jump out at Harry Ernie turned to watch the hallway while Harry went behind the counter to make sure no one was hiding back there, there wasn't. "Clear" Harry said, loudly enough that Ernie could hear him but softly enough that his voice wouldn't travel much farther than the door.

Ernie took two steps out the door and let Harry exit before closing the door and setting a entrapment charm on the doorknob. Now if anybody tried to get in they would be trapped there until Ernie came to let them go.

And so it went, Ernie and Harry would approach a door, one of them would open it and then stand guard while the other went in and cleared the room or set of offices or, every once in a while, separate hall way.

A few times they encountered doors that were locked, when this happened they spent no more than three minutes trying to get it open, if they couldn't get it open by then they set an entrapment charm on the door and left it, knowing that if anybody tried to get out they wouldn't be able to get past the door.

By the time they got to the lift an hour after they had started Ernie and Harry had searched over 80 rooms and found absolutely nothing.

The two men looked at each other, completely perplexed.

"I say we go back upstairs and regroup with the others," said Ernie

"Agreed," said Harry, taking his backpack off and pulling out his invisibility cloak. "Come on, get under," he said, throwing the cloak over himself and Ernie. Ernie compiled and quickly finished covering himself in the cloak. Harry reached out from under the cloak and pressed the button for the lift. When it finally came Harry and Ernie stepped in, Harry said "second floor" and the lift doors closed and the lift started to go up.

_I hope you all liked Part one. Part Two should be coming out in about a month and a half. I'm about to go into tech week for the show I'm Stage Managing so I won't have as much time on my hands as I have had in the last few weeks. As always, if there's anything that you want me to either put into the story or to write as a separate story send me a review to tell me. Thanks for reading, please write a review and May the Force Be With You_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: I know it's been a very long time since I last posted, but I've been very busy with school and such. If you don't remember what happened in the last chapter, please go back and read it, it feeds right into this one. As always, the characters don't belong to me and enjoy._

Chapter 7: Stealth and Tracking Part Two

Harry and Ernie arrived at the second floor and allowed the doors to open before they took off the cloak. They caused Seamus to jump about a foot in the air as they took the cloak off, "Geese guys, you could warn a guy."

Once Seamus calmed down he told them that everybody else was in the office area of the Auror department. The three trainees walked into the main office area of the Auror department and found Alicia and Dean in the conference room.

Dean was hunched over the table, fiddling with a few canisters and a small pot. Alicia was watching him intently as Harry, Ernie and Seamus walked into the conference room. The conference room table was littered with knick knacks and tidbits, some of which Harry recognized from around the Aurors' office and some of which he didn't.

"What's going on?" asked Harry, taking a closer look at the canisters, they turned out to be hairspray.

"I've got a plan," said Dean.

"Where did you get the hairspray?" asked Harry

"Fleskes," said Dean, waving a hand towards the office area, "you know the female muggle born who works in the international fugitive office. She keeps about six cans of it in her desk."

"What are you doing with it," asked Ernie, picking up one of the cans and looking at it closely. He had no idea what hairspray was.

Dean stopped what he was doing, looked up at Ernie and smiled maliciously, "I'm making a bomb," he said.

Ernie put the can of hairspray down very carefully and took a step back from the table. He'd taken muggle studies at Hogwarts and one of the many books that the Auror trainees had had to read was on muggle weaponry.

"Why?" asked Harry, sitting down at the table and taking a closer look at what Dean was working on.

"Well it'll be a distraction more than anything else," said Dean, bending over the small pot he was working on. Dean poured something out of a small bottle that looked like it came from the communal potion supplies in the Auror Department. The pot started to smoke and Dean looked up triumphantly. "Alright, done with that part. Alicia, string please."

Alicia pointed her wand down at the table and muttered a spell. String started to come out of the tip of her wand and coiled on the table. After about 5 feet Dean make a stop motion with his hand and Alicia muttered something else, causing the end of the string to appear and fall from the end of her wand.

The end of the string fell from the tip of Alicia's wand and Dean reach out and took it, along with the six cans of hairspray. He tied the cans of hairspray around the small pot and put the lid on the top of the pot. Tapping the rim of the lid with his wand Dean sealed the vessel tightly so that nothing could get out "Alright, it's ready," said Dean triumphantly, "All we have do to is set it and then shoot it with a catalyst spell.

Harry smiled, "well at least it will be all but undetectable to anything that detects magic. But I have to wonder what good it'll do us if we don't know where the people attacking us are."

"Alicia and Seamus cleared the third floor while you and Ernie cleared the fourth." said Dean, "I was here collecting what I needed for the bomb and seeing if there was anything else we could use. I found Dillant's body in his cubicle," Dean took a deep breath, "It looked like he didn't even get a chance to fight back. He's just slumped over his desk, his wand is still in his robe pocket."

Harry took a deep breath, and so did everybody else in the room. Dillant was one of the youngest Aurors in the department, having completed training just before the start of the first battle of Hogwarts. He was well liked and always made time to help if you needed it.

"Dillant was a muggle born right?" asked Ernie

"Yeah," said Alicia, "What, you think he was killed because of it? Do you think it's the left over Death Eaters?"

"No, I don't think they're stupid enough to directly attack the Ministry like this." said Seamus.

"And if they did they wouldn't have been that sloppy," said Harry

"Exactly," Ernie said, turning towards the door. "If memory serves Dillant liked to…" Ernie walked out of the room with out finishing his sentence.

"Alicia, go with him, just in case," said Harry.

Alicia followed Ernie out of the room, knowing that the buddy system was the best way to make sure everyone survived this.

While Ernie and Alicia were out on their mystery errand Dean double checked his 'bomb' and started to sort through all the other stuff that he had brought with him from the desks of the Aurors. After a few minutes of digging around Dean seamed to be satisfied that there was nothing else he could use in the pile. Just as Dean finished his examination of the Aurors' belongings Ernie and Alicia came back into the room.

"I was right," said Ernie, putting a spool of something down on the table. "Dillant liked to fish, he had a spool of fishing line in his desk."

"So?" asked Dean. "I saw it when I was searching through everyone's desk for supplies, I didn't see a way to use it. It's too inflexible to use to tie stuff together."

"Yeah, but it's thin and clear so it'll be difficult to see in the low lighting that the whole Ministry seems to be operating on right now."

"What?" asked Seamus

"A trip wire," said Ernie, "we set this up just out side the elevators on this floor so that if anybody tries to come and attack us they get tripped and they've lost the element of surprise."

"Great idea," said Harry, "Go set it up."

Ernie grabbed the spool of fishing line and he and Alicia left the room quickly and quietly.

In a little over a minute Ernie and Alicia were back in the conference room, Ernie putting the rest of the spool of fishing line in his pocket with a mischievous smile on his face.

Harry waited for Alicia and Ernie to take seats at the conference table and then started to speak. "Alright," he started in tones so soft that Ernie, Dean, Seamus and Alicia had to be absolutely silent to hear him, "here's the situation. Ernie and I found one intruder on the fourth floor, we incapacitated him and we were able to search the whole floor with out getting detected. We didn't find anybody else there, nor did we find any magical creatures there either.

"And there normally would be at least half a dozen dangerous ones in cages waiting to be licensed or shipped off to some preserve somewhere," said Dean with confidence.

"Right," said Harry, nodding his head.

"So obviously who ever caused the accident on the third floor wanted the creatures on the 4th floor," said Alicia, worry pitching her voice a bit higher.

"Exactly," said Ernie, standing up and starting to pace back and forth. "So the question becomes not only who broke into the ministry…?"

"But what do they plan to do with the magical creatures that they've taken!" exclaimed Seamus

"Right," said Harry again, glad that the five Auror Trainees were working so well as a team.

Just then there was a noise from the direction of the elevators, it sounded like a wet sack of potatoes hitting a brick wall.

Harry, Dean, Seamus, Ernie and Alicia all dropped down to the floor with out a word. As he dropped to the floor Harry waved his wand and the light that the trainees had been using in the conference room went out.

Ernie whispered from the other side of the table. "We may have set the trip line up a few feet from the elevator door so that who ever came out of the elevators would be able to get themselves going before they tripped. You know, just for fun." It was obvious that Ernie knew how dangerous the situation was, but one of the first things that the trainees had learned was that even in the most stressful and dangerous situations it was a good idea to be able to laugh, it calmed every one down and released tension, which was always a good thing on a dangerous mission.

And that's exactly what Ernie's little comment did, it released all the tension from his fellow trainees. Suddenly all five teens knew that they had gotten at least one of the intruders, if not more. Harry motioned his group of fellows forwards, towards the door to the conference room and then towards the elevators. The training they had received over the last few weeks had been good and they had all been great students. They all knew how to move with almost no noise and silent communicating silently was something they had learned to do long ago during their more boring classes at Hogwarts.

The five Auror trainees moved as a single group, with Harry leading the way, making very little noise as they crawled through the dankly lit corridors of the Auror department. In almost no time they had reached the doorway that led to the foyer where the elevators were. On the floor they could see two men, each dressed in black clothing that was loose enough to allow them to move in it but tight enough that it wouldn't get caught on anything sharp while they were moving. Basically the men looked like Harry's mental image of an assault team, except that these two individuals were lying, one on top of the other, in a heap on the floor.

Harry raised his finger to his lips to indicate silence from everyone. Then he raised his wand and silently shot ropes out of the end of it to tie up the two men that had tripped over Ernie's trip wire.

Seamus and Ernie each went up to one of the men, who had started to struggle against their bonds, and put their wands to the men's temples, silently stunning them. Then Alicia and Dean flicked their wands and levitated the two prisoners to the conference room that the Auror trainees were using as a base of operations.

After Alicia and Dean put the two men down in chairs none too gently Harry went and tied the ropes around their wrists to the arms of the chairs. Harry turned to Dean, Alicia, Seamus and Ernie, "Well they'll be out for a good six hours if we don't wake them up, what do you want to do with them?"

"I say we leave them here and go search the rest of the ministry," said Seamus.

"No," said Ernie, shaking his head as he paced back and forth in front of the prisoners. "We've searched the 2 floors where the attack was centered and found only one intruder, who Harry and I dealt with. It would take too much time for us to search all the other floors completely."

"What do we do then?" asked Dean

"We question them," said Alicia

"I'll go get the Veritaserum," said Seamus, making for the door.

"Dean…" Harry started to say.

"Yeah, I'm going with him," said Dean, already half way to the door

While Dean and Seamus went to the storage closet Harry took a good look at the two intruders that they had managed to catch. The first one was dressed in what had once been a royal blue robe, but now was so threadbare and dirty that it looked more brown than blue. The other intruder was dressed in robes of deep crimson, the color of dried blood. Red's robe had bright blue stitching at some places that seemed completely random. Harry looked closer at the robe and saw that each line of stitching was a place where the robe had been mended. Harry wondered why Red had not used thread the color of his robe or even better repaired the robe with magic.

Harry took a close look at each of the prisoners. Their faces looked vaguely familiar but Harry couldn't place them. Blue was clean-shaven with a heavily scared face and couldn't have been more than 30. Red was older, easily more than 40, with a few days of beard growth. He looked un-kept and had long, stringy hair. Even in his unconscious state it seemed that Red was scowling.

Harry was about to start searching the intruder's robes when Dean and Seamus came back.

"We've got a problem," said Dean as soon as he walked in.

"Like we don't already have one," said Ernie

"Alright, We've got another problem," said Seamus, "we've got no Veritaserum."

The room was silent for a few moments. "How?" asked Alicia, "Don't we have someone assigned to replenish the potions when they're running low.

"Yes," said Ernie.

"Well what happened?" asked Alicia.

"I don't know, but I don't think arguing about it will fix anything." said Dean

"All right, what's plan B?" asked Harry.

"Let's just wake them up and talk to them," said Alicia after a few moments of silence?

"Does anybody have a better Idea?" asked Harry when no one else said anything.

Everybody else shook their heads, Veritaserum was truth potion, and it made interrogations much easier. The fact they didn't have any meant that they would have to rely on Muggle interrogation techniques, something they had only studied briefly.

Harry walked over to the prisoners, studying them both. After a few moments he said, "Everybody get behind them, I want them to think I'm the only one here."

Dean, Seamus, Alicia and Ernie all nodded and moved out of the line of sight of the prisoners.

As soon as they were out of the way Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the temple of Blue. "_Rennervate," _he said and a few blue sparks sunk into the man's skull.

With a Jerk the man in Blue awoke, his expression passing from confusing, to fear, to anger, before finally settling on defiance all in the space of a second.

"Well well well if it isn't the Boy Who Lived," sneered Blue, a scowl pulling at the corners of his mouth.

Harry just stared at the man in Blue, taking in every detail of his face, he saw the dirt that seemed to have been on the face forever, and the little glint in the man's eye that told Harry that the man thought himself clever.

Then Harry saw it, the little twitch at the corners of Blue's mouth that was the man's only visible signal of the fear he felt.

"What's the matter Potter?" asked the man in Blue, "do I strike fear into you're heart?

"No, just wondering if you're half troll," said Harry after a few seconds, "Your Ugly mug sure suggests it."

The Blue Man's face scrunched up in anger and he started straining against the ropes that were holding him.

Harry stepped back and continued to stare at the man for a few more minutes until the man calmed down a bit and also started to let his eyes wander, which meant that he was not only calm enough to wonder where he was, but also letting his guard down a bit.

"What's your name?" asked Harry suddenly in as stern a voice as he could

Blue turned his head slowly towards Harry, "Why should I tell you?" he asked defiantly.

Despite all the bravado that the man was putting on Harry could hear a slight quiver in his voice. "Because you killed one of my friends," said Harry

"Eh, He was week, didn't deserve to be an Auror," said Blue, the sneer on his face mocking Harry.

"Well then I guess you don't deserve to live," said Harry, raising his wand to the man's temple again. He Opened his mouth and said "Ava…"

Before he could even get the second Syllable out Blue shouted, "JONES, JONES, my name is James Jones!"

"Thank you Jones, " Harry said with a pleasant smile as he relaxed his grip on his wand, letting it point at the man's chest instead of his head

"Now, I have a few more questions," said Harry, looking around the room idly, but always sure to keep one eye on Jones in case something went wrong.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked after another few minutes of silence

"To destroy the ministry," said Jones simply

"Who hired you?" asked Harry

"Someone greater than you'll ever know." said Jones, his voice tinged with something that Harry could only call an odd combination of Awe, Respect and Fear. It was the same way that some of Voldemort's followers had spoken when talking about the "Dark Lord".

"How many of you are there?" asked Harry

"More than enough to defeat you Potter," said Jones menacingly as he tried to lunge at Harry from his seated position. However all he managed to do was tip the chair forward, and with a loud crack and crunch, smashed his face on the floor.

Jones was out cold with blood streaming down the lower half of his face as Harry and Dean pick him up off the floor. Dean put his wand to the bridge of the man's nose and muttered a spell. The bleeding stopped immediately.

"Alright, it's my turn," said Alicia, I want to interrogate Red.

"Be my guest," Harry said, stepping around the two prisoners, leaving the space open for Alicia.

Alicia took a deep breath and suddenly started crying silently. Harry, Dean, Seamus and Ernie all opened their mouths, but before any of them could say anything Alicia held up her hand "All part of the plan, I'm fine."

After a few seconds Alicia whipped her face, her eyes were red and puffy and there were tear streaks running down her cheeks. Alicia put on an expression of extreme anger, tinged with just a bit of sadness and put her wand up to Red's temple. "_Rennervate," _she said, waking the older of the two prisoners up.

As Red came to Alicia just stared at him, letting the prisoner take the image in front of him in. Red smiled in a way that he had been told made ghosts feel all cold and clammy. "Who'd we kill?" he asked.

"No one," said Alicia, a bit of a hitch in her voice

"Ah, little girl, you shouldn't try and trick me, I know my business. Now who did we kill?"

Alicia let a sob escape her, "Harry, you killed Harry," and then she bust into tears again, sobbing loudly. She backed up until she hit the wall and then sunk down to the floor slowly.

A large smile played across Red's lips, "Now no one will be able to stop us," he said confidently, "We will release the animals upon the unsuspecting Muggles and the world will once again know the power of magical beings." With what could only be described as an evil chortle Red continued, "Today will forever be known as the day where the Four succeeded where the _Dark Lord _didn't. We will reveal our presence to the Muggle world and rule them. Soon, Number One and Number Three will come to free Number Four and I from you and then the four of us will destroy you Muggle sympathizers."

At this point Alicia suddenly stopped sobbing and stood up, "thanks" she said simply and, pointing her wand at Red's chest she stunned him, knocking him backwards and onto his back.

"Well that was effective," said Ernie after Dean and Alicia had stood Red's chair back up.

"They can never help but brag," said Alicia, especially after they think they've won."

"Alright, here's what we know," said Seamus, "There are four of them, these two, the one that Ernie and Harry encountered and one more. They've released the dangerous magical creatures from the forth floor and they are planning to release them into the city.

"If you wanted to release half a dozen large, dangerous magical creatures out on to the streets of London how would you do it?" asked Harry

"apparate them to the center of the city." Suggested Alicia.

"No, it would be to difficult to control them," said Ernie, "these people want the Muggles to know there are powerful magical beings living in this world, and as we all know, Muggles have a great talent for rationalizing any act of magic they see."

"And they would think that it was performance art or something," said Dean.

"The Main Lobby" said Harry, "it's the only place large enough to get these animals together and there's a door that leads directly into the back streets of the city."

Everybody nodded. Then Dean looked up at the ceiling and smiled, "I've got an idea," he said, patting the bomb that was sitting on the table.

"Alright, obviously we all want to go to the lobby to stop these two and the animals, but I think we need to leave at least one person here incase Red and Blue's friends come to help them," said Alicia.

"We're going to need as many hands as possible if the other two have the animals free," said Seamus, "They'll be too busy keeping the animals in check to worry about these two for a while. I think we can body bind them, leave them stunned and out of site and we should be able to get the other two and the animals, no need for a guard down here."

"As much as I think we need a guard for these two," Harry started, indicating the two prisoners, "I think we'll need all the help we can once we find the other two and the animals."

"We'll put these two in the holding cells and keep them bound, body bound and stunned," said Ernie, then we'll go up to the lobby and see what's happening."

"Works for me," said Dean.

Seamus, and Ernie levitated the two prisoners to the holding cells in the back of the Auror Department. The cells were designed to reduce the risk of a magic based escape. Once a prisoner was put into one of the cells the locking mechanism was transfigured into a solid block of steel. The walls were made of a magic proof material that had been invented by alchemists in the late 12th century.

Once the prisoners were locked away the trainees gathered once again in the conference room to plan their assault on the lobby.

"Here's my plan," said Dean, "Since the lobby is the top floor of the ministry we are currently under it, which means if we cut through the ceiling of this floor and the first floor we can come up anywhere in the lobby and surprise the people up there. But here's the kicker," Dean continued with the same scary smile as before, "we send my little friend here," Dean patted the bomb as affectionately as one would pat a loyal dog, "up before us and set it off in the middle of the lobby."

"That would send the animals into a fear induced frenzy," said Alicia, her voice filled with disbelief

"Exactly," said Dean, "While the criminals are trying to control the animals we can sneak up through the hole and take positions. Once the animals have been calmed down, probably with stunning charms, we take out the criminals and then the animals, or the other way around if the situation calls for it."

The group was silent for a little while, "actually that's a really good idea," said Ernie, "I say we go for it."

"It's too risky," said Alicia, "there are too many unknowns. I think we should wait down here until the other two come to get their partners and capture them then."

"I'm with Alicia on this one," said Seamus, "Sorry buddy," he said to Dean.

Every one looked to Harry at this point, not only because he was their unofficial leader, but because he was the only one who hadn't voiced his support for one of the plans.

After a few seconds of consideration Harry spoke, choosing each of his words very carefully. "I think Dean's plan is the best idea we can implement right now," said Harry. "Sure, one of the other intruders may come and try to rescue his friend, but the other one will definitely stay with the animals, and when his three friends don't come back he may try and carry out the plan with out them, which could be just as damaging to both the Muggle and Wizarding world." Harry took a few moments to let what he had just said be absorbed by his comrades, and to give everyone time to set themselves for what was coming next.

"Alright, here's the plan," said Harry confidently, "Ernie and Alicia will cut the first hole in the ceiling here in the conference room. Leave it open in case we need to retreat back down here. Then all five of us will move up to the first floor. Seamus and I will cut the hole into the lobby, but we'll leave it in place once it's been cut so as not to draw attention to ourselves. Then we will slowly float the bomb up, letting the floor rise with the bomb and then…boom. As soon as the bomb goes off we go through the hole, first Dean, then Alicia, then Seamus, then me then Ernie. Dean it'll be your job to control the bomb at every juncture. You bring it up to the 1st floor, you levitate it through the hole into the lobby and you set it off when you think its right. Everybody understand?

Dean just nodded, his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face.

Ernie grunted once, flexing his fingers and rolling his head to the left and right, stretching in preparation for the up coming assault.

Alicia smiled like a savage cat, ready to strike, "ready when you are boss," she said in a calm and cool manor that made Harry's spine tingle.

Seamus was bone white and shaking slightly, but there was a look of determination on his face that Harry knew meant that nothing would stand in his way.

"All right, just one last thing." said Harry, taking a deep breath and looking at each of his fellow trainees in turn. "Remember, what ever happens, we've done some amazing things here today. We couldn't have gotten this far if one of us hadn't been here. We came into this as a team and, no matter what, we'll get out of it as a team."

There was silence for a few seconds as the five young Aurors let the thought sink in. Then, with out a word, they got to work. Ernie and Alicia pointed their wands at the ceiling and started cutting a hole a meter wide, beveling the edges out so that it wouldn't fall when they were done.

It took less than a minute to cut through the ceiling, and another two minutes to get all five Aurors and the bomb up to the 1st floor. From there Harry took a second to orient himself and his team in relation to the elevators. If they could cut a hole behind the security desk their work might be concealed from the view of the intruders.

Harry stood on a spot that he guessed was directly below the security desk and started cutting through the ceiling with Seamus' help. They were almost done with the hole when it suddenly shot up, leaving jagged edges one the side of the hole where the plug had been ripped away.

Harry and Seamus both shot backwards as a stunning spell came shooting down through the hole, missing Seamus by centimeters. Harry had barely opened his mouth to tell Dean to send the bomb up when it whizzed past his head and up through the hole.

The bomb didn't get very far before it exploded, a violent column of fire came shooting down through the hole, sending bits of shrapnel bouncing around the area that the Aurors had used as their staging point. None of them escaped the torrent of fire without injury. Luckily the most serious injury was a deep gash to Seamus' forearm that was quickly mended with magic. Everybody else escaped with nothing more than a few minor scrapes that didn't even call for magical healing.

"I think we missed the security desk," said Alicia.

"Yeah," said Harry, getting up and giving as wide a birth to the newly formed sky light as possible.

Before Harry could tell the rest of them to retreat back to the 2nd floor Auror office Seamus was below the hole and levitating himself up through it, his wand at the ready. He went up fast, hoping the element of surprise and speed would give him an advantage. And it did, for a few seconds at least.

Seamus shot up through the hole like a stunt man out of a circus cannon, his wand out and shooting stunning spells and body-binding curses as quickly as the thoughts could form in his head. But the two intruders in the lobby had been waiting for something to come out of the hole and it only took them a few seconds to recover from their surprise at seeing a human body shoot up through the floor. They each started shooting green spells at Seamus. Soon Number Three hit Seamus in the shoulder, sending him crashing to the ground in a limp heap.

But those few seconds were all that the other four Aurors needed. They scrambled through the hole, each speeding in a different direction once they were through.

They each put about 20 meters between themselves and the two intruders before turning around. When they did turn around the four Young Aurors received a shock to their systems that no training could have prepared them for.

Harry had initially been worried about having to ignore his fallen friend while fighting, but most thoughts of Seamus were blown from his mind by the green robes and a black bowler hat, both commonly worn by their Sgt., Frank Greenman. Harry quickly looked at his fellow Trainees and saw that they too had recognized their respected teacher as one of the intruders. Alicia's face was stricken, betrayal and anger written in her caramel features. Ernie was just scowling, his eyes narrowed in anger, he looked like an animal on the verge of attack. Dean's face seemed to be shocked and saddened at the same time, his eyes kept darting back and forth between the limp form of Seamus in a pile on the ground and Sgt. Greenman, standing over the young man who had been his student. It was obvious that Dean was on the verge of tears.

Harry realized, just in time, that Dean was about to charge at their teacher, "Dean, don't do it." Harry shouted across the room. There are four of us and only two of them, we can defeat them. If you go down it's more likely that the three of us will get hurt."

This at least stopped Dean's impulsive rampage before it started, but it was obvious that, if allowed, he would like nothing more than to flay Frank Greenman into small pieces.

"Very good," said Greenman in a mocking tone, "listen to Potter, after all he just got one of you killed with his little plan didn't he?" With that, Greenman and his compatriot turned so that they were each facing two of the young Aurors. Harry and Alicia were facing Greenman while Ernie and Dean were facing the man that Harry and Ernie had memory whipped on the fourth floor.

Harry turned his attention away from Ernie, Dean and the other intruder, trusting Ernie to keep Dean from doing anything stupid. Instead he turned all his attention to Frank Greenman and Alicia. Greenman was studying his former students with his wand raised, watching, waiting for them to make any type of move.

Harry knew that Alicia wouldn't act immediately; she was a patient person who could sit still in a silent room for hours. Harry took a second to examine the rest of the main lobby, what he saw surprised him, even though he had been half expecting it.

At the far end of the lobby a Griffin, a Yetti, a Troll, a Cerberus and a Chimera were lying on the floor. They were all sleeping, obviously kept in that state by magic. At least that was something that Harry and his team wouldn't have to worry about yet.

Harry brought his attention back to his opponent and his friend. He stole a quick glance at Alicia and saw that she had done the same. Their eyes met for a second, but that was all they needed. They had played Quidditch together at Hogwarts, they knew each other's rhythms very well, and their recent training together had only heightened that synchronicity.

Harry knew that Alicia was gearing up for a full out strike, and she was going to go on a count of 3. Harry counted to two and just as he was about to say three he shot a stunning spell at Greenman.

Greenman was able to raise a shield charm in time to block the spell, but it made him turn slightly away from Alicia for a crucial few seconds. Alicia used those few seconds to run the gap separating her from her former teacher, she hit the man with her full body weight, throwing herself into him. Both of them went crashing to the ground and started grappling with each other. They were too close for wands; it was purely a physical contest now. And Frank Greenman was superior in that area. Harry knew that he had to do something quickly or his friend and former teammate would die.

Harry stood there, everything was going to shit around him. Ernie and Dean were each shooting spells at the other intruder, but he was dodging most of them and batting the others aside like they were tennis balls. The Animals on the far side of the lobby were all stirring, obviously held asleep by magic that required a bit of concentration to maintain. And now that both intruders were involved with struggles for their lives the animals were waking up. Seamus was dead, and Harry knew that if he didn't act soon Alicia would probably be dead also.

What messed with Harry's head the most was that it was Sgt. Greenman who was behind the attack. Sgt. Greenman, who had taught them all so well in the last few weeks. Sgt. Greenman who had shown them that even when the odds were against them, they could succeed. Sgt. Greenman who had told them to never take anything at face value and to always think 3 steps ahead.

All of this went through Harry's head in less than a second, and it was that last though, _nothing is ever as it seems at first, _that brought Harry to a realization that both blew his mind and catapulted him into action.

Harry brought his wand up and with all his magical might shouted "_Stupify," _and shot a very powerful stunning spell at the tangled ball of limbs that was Alicia and Sgt. Greenman, stopping them both in mid scuffle and dropping them to the floor, completely limp.

The vocalized spell was enough to surprise the final intruder, causing him to turn around and take his attention off of Ernie and Dean for a millisecond. But that was enough for one of Dean's stunning spells to hit the man square in the head, sending him careening across the room until he slammed full force into the security desk. Harry heard a few things crack, and he was pretty sure it wasn't the marble desk.

"Get the animals!" Harry shouted to Ernie, who quickly turned around and magically lulled all five animals into a deep sleep.

Harry quickly walked over to the entangled forms of Alicia and Sgt. Greenman while Dean stumbled over to Seamus' mangled body and Ernie stood watching over the scene, enough of his concentration on the animals to keep them asleep, but also watching what was going on with his comrades.

Harry summoned Sgt. Greenman's and the other intruder's wands to himself and then knelt down next to Alicia. Sticking his wand to her forehead he muttered "_Rennervate" _bringing Alicia out of unconsciousness. She woke up and immediately started swinging, breaking Harry's glasses…again.

"Whoops," she said, after her fist had connected with Harry's face, "I thought you might be Sgt. Greenman or the other one. "

"Nope, just me, Harry," he said, picking up his glasses and silently repairing them before slipping them back on to his face. After helping Alicia into a sitting position and making sure she wasn't hurt to badly Harry went over to Sgt. Greenman. With a quick flick of his wrists Harry tied the man up and then performed the same revival spell on him.

As Sgt. Greenman stirred and realized who was standing over him a cocky smile adorned his lips. "Well well well, it seems Potter has captur…"

"Shut up," Harry said, cutting the older Auror off, "I know it's all fake."

The smile on Sgt. Greenman's lips faltered for a second but soon regained it's full cockiness, "What do you mean a fake?" he asked with as much surprise as he could muster.

Despite Sgt. Greenman's best efforts Harry could still hear the warble in the man's voice that told him something was up.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" asked Dean through tears.

"None of this is real," Harry said, standing up from the kneeling position he had taken next to Sgt. Greenman. He walked to the center of the room, "We're in the training room, it's making all of this seem real, but it's not, watch." and with that he pointed his wand at the ceiling and shouted "_LAXONUS!" _A blue beam erupted from the end of his wand, hitting the ceiling and spreading across it like paint spilling from a can. As the blue light spread the ministry ceiling and then walls and finally floor melted away, revealing the dark brick walls of the training room in it's plain form.

"We're in the training room?" shouted Dean, springing up and launching himself towards Sgt. Greenman. Ernie, who no longer had to concentrate on holding five sleeping magical creatures at bay, grabbed Dean by the arms and held him back before he took more than three steps towards the still bound Sgt.

"It was all a training exercise," said Alicia with sudden comprehension. "That's why we were portkeyed in to the ministry."

"Exactly," said Harry, lowering his wand as his spell finished unmasking the room. "And why we thought we recognized the other intruders, they're all Aurors."

"But they killed Seamus!" Dean exclaimed, collapsing on the floor again.

"No, he's just stunned," Sgt. Greenman said from the floor.

Dean sat up right, hopefulness filling his face as he scrambled over to his fallen friend. He stuck his wand against Seamus' temple and stuttered "_R…re…rennerate." _

A bright red flash engulfed Seamus' head and then he sat bolt up right and was quickly trapped in a massive bear hug by Dean.

"Now, can I be allowed out of these binding please?" Asked Sgt. Greenman, struggling against the ropes that Harry had bound him with.

"Yeah," said Harry, waving his wand absent-mindedly at Sgt. Greenman. The ropes undid themselves and dissolved into the floor.

Sgt. Greenman stood up and rubbed his wrists to get the circulation flowing again. "You all did very well, although getting Seamus 'killed' was a bit of a mistake." Sgt. Greenman said, walking over to the fourth intruder and reviving him.

"Wait, what the bloody hell just happened," asked Seamus, having finally escaped from Dean's bear hug.

"This was you're stealth and tracking exam," said Sgt. Greenman like nothing was wrong.

At that moment the other two intruders walked through the door.

"Alright, Somebody explain what the bloody hell is going on!" said Seamus as he stood up.

"Like I said, this was your stealth and tracking exam." said Sgt. Greenman. "the other three 'intruders were all Aurors from the department who have been out on assignment for the last few weeks." From there Sgt. Greenman and the other Aurors explained that it had been a practical exam. The situation had forced the Trainees to use their stealth and tracking training as well as some other stuff they had picked up over the last two weeks. "This is what happens with one of the exams for every training class," said Sgt. Greenman, "we give them a 'real world' exam in this room so that we can see how they react to an unexpected situation and how they deal with the real world stress of combat and such. Anyway, you guys did exceptionally well, only one 'fatality' among the group."

"And some very inventive thinking on Potter's part," growled the Auror in the red robe, "Stunning your Sgt, and your partner was very effective, although a bit unorthodox…I loved it."

"Yeah, we'll be using that in the training sessions," said Blue. "Glad I could be of service," Harry said sarcastically. He knew that the reasoning behind the format of the exam was completely logical, but that didn't mean he liked it. He was still angry about being tricked and forced to experience the supposed death of yet another friend.

"We're all very impressed you realized that it wasn't real. You're not the first to realize it, but there haven't been that many before you." said Sgt. Greenman

"The minister was the last one right?" asked the last 'intruder'/Auror.

"Yep," said Red, "Shacklebolt realized it was all a sham, but it wasn't until after he and the other two trainees who had 'survived' had locked all the 'intruders' up. From what I've heard they were on the verge of doing some pretty nasty things to the Aurors who volunteered."

"I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with this type of test," said Ernie, looking at the walls of the training room suspiciously, as if any moment they would turn back into the lobby of the ministry and the five trainees would be back in the fight for their lives.

"Well it's always been done this way," said Sgt. Greenman. "now, we're going to spend a bit of time reviewing what you all did today. But I just want to start out by saying that you guys did an exceptional job and I am very proud of you. What I'm not going to do is apologize for deceiving you, I honestly belive that it was the best way to test which of you are going to be ready to go out into the real world after the summer and which of you will need more training." Sgt. Greenman looked at each Trainee individually, and they could all tell that he had gained a bit of respect for each of them. And oddly enough, that was enough to calm them down enough to review the test. They spent a few hours on that and when they had finished going over what seemed like every little detail Sgt. Greenman finally said, "Alright, go home, remember you have tomorrow off. Monday we start with Tactics, Dueling Strategies and Weapons." And with that Sgt. Greenman and the other three Aurors walked out of the room into a nearly empty Auror Department.

Harry, Dean, Seamus, Ernie and Alicia walked out of the room, bewildered looks on all of their faces. They all rode the elevator to the lobby that they had thought to be the scene of a great tragedy and betrayal and then one by one they apparated back to their respective homes.

It was dark when Harry arrived at the Burrow a few moments later. Looking at his watch Harry realized that it was almost 10 o'clock and the test had taken up nearly seventeen hours of the day.

As Harry walked into Ginny's Room and collapsed on the bed with Ginny, who had been reading a book as Harry walked in, looked over and asked, "So, how was your exam?"

"It was…unexpectedly exciting," said Harry, having no other way to describe it. "I can't really say anything else about it," he said, seeing the look on Ginny's face that asked him to elaborate.

"That's fine," she said, putting the book away on her bedside table and finally looking Harry over fully. "You look exhausted," she said, concerned, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, the test was a bit more strenuous than I expected," said Harry, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Ah," said Ginny, reaching out and stroking Harry's cheek. "Did you pass?"

Harry grinned, "Yep," he said, kissing Ginny's wrist and hand.

"Well we should celebrate then," Ginny said, shifting herself so she was facing Harry fully.

Harry just chuckled, letting himself flop back onto the bed, "Sorry Gin," he said, "you know that I'd love to, but I don't think I could tend to you fully tonight, I'm too exhausted and way too sore."

"It's fine," said Ginny, standing up and letting her silky robe fall away to reveal a naked body underneath, I'll just go put something on."

Harry smiled a bit as he watched his girlfriend walk away. "You don't have to go that far," said Harry, "I think that with a good night's sleep I'll be more than ready to satisfy your needs in the morning."

Ginny turned back to Harry, crossing her arms under her full chest, knowing very well just how much the pose turned Harry on. "All right," said Ginny after looking Harry over for a few moments. She walked back towards the bed and stopped just before she sat down. "If you think that my cloths will get in the way tomorrow morning than yours probably would too."

Harry couldn't' help but laugh as Ginny motioned him to stand up. Once he had she simply said, "Strip." Harry complied with out a single thought of protest, after all, with Ginny naked 4 feet away there was nothing else he could do. It was true, he was way too tired to fuck her tonight, but that didn't stop him from being very turned on by her naked body.

After Harry finished undressing he pulled back the light comforter that covered Ginny's bed and the two teens got under it, snuggling close to each other.

Harry kissed Ginny's neck as she settled into his arms, "I love you," he said softly, "I want you to remember that."

"Alright," said Ginny, a little concerned with the tone of Harry's voice. She chalked it up to how tired he was "I love you too," she said.

And with that thought still floating in the minds of the two teens they drifted off to sleep, their dreams destined to be occupied by thoughts of the many adventures the two of them had had together.

_Hope you all liked it; I've been working on it for quite a while. One of the reasons it took so long to get out was that I had a bit of trouble coming up with a way to end these chapters. I don't know if I'm going to get to writing any more of this story, but I'm going to leave it as incomplete for now. I'm working on a few more one shots that I want to finish before I continue with this story, but I haven't yet completely given up on this one. I know there are a lot of people out there who really like this story so please show your support and review it. As always if you have any suggestions write a review. May the Force Be With you._

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